Now that the US sees the EU as a potential enemy, Europe has moved to ensure its financial system can never be sanctioned or shut down; something the US has done to Russia, Cuba, and Iran.
By late 2025, efforts centered on the Digital Euro, a nonprofit payment system run by the European Central Bank (like euro cash). Due by 2030, it would offer lower fees and quickly replace much Visa and Mastercard usage. While still in development, other solutions arrived sooner. Instant bank-to-bank payments, bypassing cards, are expanding rapidly. In February, 130 million users across 13 national systems were linked in a Europe-wide network aiming to cover all of Europe. Fees are a fraction of Visa/Mastercard, though unlike the Digital Euro, it's not yet available as a debit card; only online and on phones.
The EU also wants to decouple from US software and is preparing its own alternative to Microsoft Office.
Europe Is Breaking Up With Visa and Mastercard — and It’s a $24 Trillion Problem
Europe builds Microsoft-alternative ‘Euro-Office’ to reclaim digital sovereignty
Yeah but swish and BankID are owned by the Swedish banks and thanks to that they are not interested in partaking in many of the cross border systems as they don't want competition in Sweden.
Sweden may be progressive in some ways but we are completely backwater when we allow the banks - who constantly get caught in laundering schemes - to control vital infrastructure.
They are also refusing to integrate their apps with "competing" id apps such as Freja. If the authorities expect them to profit from infra there needs to be regulations for these things.