Bringing European retailer reality to the payments conversation

In this paper, Atze Faas shares his perspective on merchant payments, drawing on his personal experience working for bp, a large fuel retailer, as well as his recent activity working on retail payments in the EU context. After covering the key processes for establishing and executing a payments strategy, he discusses the legislative process of the EU in general. Before diving into the current payment related files currently under discussion, he explains how Europe has non-bank payment institutions and multiple domestic schemes. He covers the lack of competition and transparency around card payments, the importance of European payment solutions, such as instant payments and the digital euro, and the acceptance of cash. He finishes with a call to all stakeholders in the payments ecosystem to keep engaging with merchants.