Consumers back payment sovereignty as geopolitical concerns rise

A new survey from Enfuce suggests geopolitical tensions are increasingly shaping how European consumers and payment providers think about payment infrastructure, with broad support for greater local control but limited willingness to switch payment methods on principle alone.

The research, Payment Sovereignty: Consumers Are Paying Attention, surveyed 3,000 consumers and 500 senior payment executives across France, Germany, Italy, the Nordics and the UK. It found that 62% of consumers and 75% of payment providers are concerned that geopolitical tensions could lead foreign-controlled payment networks to restrict or even halt transactions in their markets.

Support for sovereign alternatives is strong. Enfuce said 73% of consumers and 97% of payment providers believe it is important for the UK and EU to have greater control over payment systems. Awareness of alternative schemes is also growing, with more than half of consumers saying they have thought about the systems behind everyday payments and 56% saying they are familiar with efforts to build alternatives to Visa and Mastercard.

Concerns about concentration in the market were also evident. Six in 10 consumers and 67% of payment providers said it is a problem that a small number of global companies control so much of the payments landscape. At the same time, 67% of consumers said they would struggle to pay, or would be unable to pay, without Visa or Mastercard, highlighting the scale of dependence on existing networks.

Denise Johansson, co-founder and chief executive of Enfuce, said, “For decades, payments were designed around convenience and global scale. Now they are becoming a question of resilience, control and economic security. Consumers are starting to recognise that the systems moving money around the world are not politically neutral infrastructure.”

The report also suggests that ideology alone will not drive adoption of new payment methods. While 43% of consumers said they would trade some convenience for greater payment sovereignty, they placed security, acceptance and privacy ahead of ownership concerns when choosing how to pay.

Security was the top reason consumers would switch payment methods, cited by 43%, followed by acceptance at 40% and privacy at 29%. Just one in five said they would choose a new payment system mainly because it was locally owned.

Among providers, support for European alternatives appears stronger. Enfuce said 85% of payment providers have implemented, or plan to implement, Wero, with support visible in the UK and Italy despite the scheme not yet being available there.

The findings suggest that while payment sovereignty is moving into the mainstream, broad consumer adoption will depend on practical performance, not politics alone.