The European Union is worried about the US dominance of credit cards and digital wallets in payment services. It already requires banks to give fintechs free access to customer account data. Now it is preparing to mandate the sharing of other financial data beyond payment accounts, though data holders may charge handling fees this time. The goal: curb the US grip on financial services.
These moves are bound to upset the Trump Administration, which will see them as an attack on US payments giants such as Visa and Mastercard. In contrast to Europe, the US is edging toward “pay-for-access” models, letting banks charge fintechs for customer-permissioned data. The result? Two radically different financial orders are battling to shape digital access over who manages the plumbing of tomorrow’s money.
US banks fired the first shots in this fintech war over the summer. JPMorgan Chase, the US’s largest bank, announced it would begin charging for access to customer account data. US fintech Plaid cut a new deal with JPMorgan.
Until now, the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) aimed to ban banks from imposing fees on data access, with its Section 1033 regime. Under the Trump Administration, the agency is actively rethinking the rules
The stakes are clear. If US banks turn data access into a toll road, fintechs will pay the price. Startups could be squeezed out, while incumbents tighten their grip. US fintech groups are furious, expressing strong criticism of JPMorgan’s move and the Trump Administration’s policy reversal.
By contrast, the EU treats regulated third-party access to bank data as a public good. Under the PSD2 payments regime, banks must give access to trusted third-party providers.
Now, Europe is proposing to go further with its Financial Data Access (FIDA) regulation, which would extend that mandate beyond payments into credit, insurance, investments, and more. It aims to promote competition and innovation while reducing reliance on foreign platforms.
These efforts plug into the EU’s digital sovereignty drive — anchoring identity, payments, and regulation within Europe’s borders and under its rules, not subject to US platforms and US regulations.
The US and EU are no longer following complementary blueprints; they are carving competing models. These divergent evolutions have immediate implications for transatlantic financial and digital relations. Europe’s rules slash entry barriers and give fintechs cross-border certainty. In the US, fees and ambiguity risk shutting out challengers and locking in entrenched players.
Visa and Mastercard now power about two-thirds of euro-zone card payments, and tech giants like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal are grabbing big chunks, too. Alarmed, the European Central Bank is pushing a digital euro to offer consumers and merchants a European alternative.
Both the EU and UK are pursuing antitrust probes into Visa and Mastercard, examining what they believe are opaque fee structures, limited merchant choice, and contracts that may bake in unfair costs. Heavy penalties loom — and an angry reaction from Washington looks guaranteed.
Europe’s private sector is stepping into the sovereignty fight. The Franco-German bank-led European Payments Initiative (EPI) is backing Wero — a pan-European wallet built on instant, account-to-account transfers — as a direct rival to Visa, Mastercard, and digital wallets.
EuroPA (European Payments Alliance), led by national mobile systems, is linking domestic networks to stitch together a sovereign payments fabric. They aim to reclaim control over payments, reduce dependence on US rails, and hardwire European norms into financial infrastructure.
Internationally, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is testing a global open-finance rail — Project Aperta — to replace today’s patchwork with a shared backbone built on common digital tools (APIs). With central banks from Europe, Asia, and emerging markets on board — but little to no US involvement — the project’s stated goal is to ease cross-border flows of data and payments, though it could also have the side effect of diluting US influence. Aperta could bridge the models through shared standards or expose the rift between the US and the rest of the world, including Europe.
What is needed is a balance of competition that drives innovation, combined with purposeful transatlantic alignment on rules and standards. Only through this mix can the US and EU preserve sovereignty in their financial and digital systems — while avoiding a transatlantic fight over fintech.
Padraig Nolan is a Non-resident Fellow with the Tech Policy Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis. He serves as Chief Operating Officer of ETPPA, a prominent EU fintech association. He is also an advisory board member of the Lisbon-based Europe Startup Nations Alliance. Padraig holds a bachelor’s degree in law and economics (University of Galway) and a master’s degree in European law (Utrecht University).
Bandwidth is CEPA’s online journal dedicated to advancing transatlantic cooperation on tech policy. All opinions expressed on Bandwidth are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
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