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 EuropeanCentral 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 networkbaiming 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.
Yeah, I was surprised to learn that Americans can’t just transfer money - like, when I need to send a friend some money I just transfer it to them on my bank app. It’s instant and very easy. And, I could be wrong, but I think America still uses actual paper cheques. Yeah, things have evolved. Be great if Europe gets this system up and running soon.
It’s weirder than that: cheques are free, but wire transfers are very expensive. Which is really funny, because a cheque is just a very complicated way to set up a wire transfer these days. Someone gets the cheque, it gets scanned, and then the data is used to transfer money from origin to destination account.
Americans do use phone apps, like CashApp, Venmo, or Zelle and the like, adding a layer on top of direct payments.