Monnet & PayFair May Unite/Form Debit Network

Pan-European debit schemes may combine



A leading advocate for Monnet – the planned pan-European debit network – has opened the door for a possible collaboration with the European card scheme PayFair and the Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes (EAPS).

Monnet, EAPS and the merchant-focused PayFair network all have separate plans to offer pan-European debit card acceptance and establish a credible third scheme to challenge the dominance of Visa and MasterCard in Europe.



However, speaking at the Lafferty Group ‘Is Debit the New Credit?’ conference on 3 November, Petra Stange, head of commercial cards at Deutsche Bank, said: “We can only have one new scheme, not three of four. Maybe we [Monnet, EAPS and PayFair] can work together jointly. At the end of day, we are looking for competition. We need to talk.”



PayFair CEO Dominique Buysschaert responded to Stange’s comments by saying: “We are open to dialogue.” However, he stressed the need for a third card scheme to have transparency and neutrality, adding: “It is the retailer who decides what payment will be used.”





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