EU Banks in Secret Talks to Launch Card to Compete with Mastercard, Visa

They’re calling it “secret talks” – but here you are, reading it.  A bunch of other people are reading this article, too, no doubt (hi, Mom!)  We learned about the story from Reuters.  I’m not sure how secret these “secret talks” are, is really all I’m getting at.

Anyway, a cadre of European banks are in (>wink<) secret talks to challenge MasterCard and Visa Europe’s hold on the debit card market.

According to the Reuters piece, “the banks are believed to be unhappy with the possible emergence of MasterCard’s Maestro as the dominant provider of debit card network services in Europe.”

The banks involved in the secret talks are Societe Generale, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, Commerzbank, Unicredito, ABN AMRO, ING, and Rabobank.

The European Union has just adopted new rules to create a single euro payments area (SEPA) for the bloc’s 490 million consumers to make or receive national or cross-border payments in all EU currencies from a single bank account.

The aim is to have one EU-wide payments system using common technical standards so that existing banks and new payment institutions can compete to cut costs for consumers.