11 December 2020
- The European Payments Initiative (EPI) announces that the main Polish and Finnish banks, as well as a consortium of twelve Spanish credit institutions, are joining as new founding shareholders.
Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Madrid, Munich, Paris, Warsaw – 09 December 2020
Today, EPI Interim Company, responsible for initiating the implementation of the European Payments Initiative (EPI), is pleased to announce that PKO Bank Polski ("PKO BP"), Poland's largest bank, and OP Financial Group, the main Finnish retail bank, are joining EPI as founding shareholders of the newly created company. Furthermore, a group of 12 Spanish credit institutions have formed a consortium and also join the EPI as a collective founding shareholder of EPI Interim Company.
The inclusion of PKO Bank Polski and OP Financial Group paves the way for EPI access to the Polish and Finnish markets. This is a major milestone for the EPI, as it confirms the interest of new communities in the payment initiative and shows that the EPI is attractive to markets that are considered to be more digitally advanced. Poland will become the first non-euro based market to join the EPI and will enable the group to address the challenge of currency conversion as part of the solution.
The EPI is also pleased to welcome the 12 Spanish credit institutions that have decided to join collectively. Their inclusion demonstrates that EPI governance is open to smaller players and it is prepared to take their specific needs into account for the future payment solution. This move will substantially increase EPI coverage in the Spanish market, together with the three largest Spanish banks: BBVA, CaixaBank and Banco Santander, all of which are individual shareholders of EPI. The credit institution consortium comprises ABANCA, Banco Cooperativo Español, Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar, Caja de Ingenieros, LABORAL Kutxa, Cecabank, Eurocaja Rural, Grupo Bankinter, Ibercaja, Kutxabank, Liberbank and Unicaja Banco.
Two weeks ago, the third-party buyers Worldline and Nets also announced that they are to join the EPI as founding shareholders. In the coming months, the EPI will focus on implementing the new solution.
In July 2020, a group of 16 major European banks from five countries (Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain) paved the way for the future launch of the European Payments Initiative, announcing the creation of the EPI Interim Company in Brussels, which will be responsible for initiating the implementation of the joint payment initiative.
The EPI's seeks to create a joint and innovative pan-European payment solution, profiting from Instant Payment / SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst), offering a card for consumers and traders across Europe, a digital wallet, and P2P payments. The solution aims to become a new standard in payments for European consumers and traders in all kinds of retail transactions, including in-person transactions, e-commerce, cash withdrawals and P2P (peer-to-peer) transactions, as an alternative to existing international payment solutions and schemes.
