Europe plays a larger role in global payments than is often assumed. This emerges from a new report by Money20/20 and FXC Intelligence, presented at Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam. The EMEA region accounted for 21.1 trillion dollars in cross-border retail payments in 2025 — half of global outflows.

Stablecoins, tokenisation and blockchain are dominating the discussion in this respect. The three terms appeared in 35 per cent of all analysed trade articles across 14 European markets. At the same time, concern is growing about dependence on American payment infrastructure and dollar-based stablecoins. These concerns are fuelling the development of European alternatives such as Wero and EuroPA.

No fewer than 63 per cent of European coverage of cross-border payments has an optimistic tone, with forward-looking coverage scoring significantly higher than retrospective analysis. Business payments account for a commanding 83 per cent of the total flow. The report shines a spotlight on how deeply payment infrastructure is becoming intertwined with geopolitics and financial strategy.

Source:  europe.money2020.com/agenda/cross-border-payments-report