UK looks to sovereign alternative to Visa and Mastercard

Bank bosses are to hold initial meetings aimed to cutting reliance on US payment networks

With concerns about US dominance rising, the UK and EU are looking for sovereignty in finance as well as technology.

UK bank chiefs are to meet this week to discuss a national alternative to US payment platforms Visa and Mastercard, as concerns grow about US President Donald Trump’s ability and willingness to turn off access.

The companies also raised hackles last year when they took a political stance, pushing gaming storefronts like Steam and Itch.io to censor their content or risk losing access the world’s most widespread payment infrastructure. About 95% of UK card transactions utilise one of the two big US providers, according to the Payment Systems Regulator.

Although the initiative, which has been in the works for some years, is government-banked, it would be banks who fund the new payments company, known as DeliveryCo, if it were needed.

Private banks will be in charge of creating the legal structure, leadership plans and future funding models, while the Bank of England will build infrastructure plans.

One executive told The Guardian, “If Mastercard and Visa were turned off, it would send us back to the 1950s... Of course, we need a sovereign payments system.”

The European Union is also looking to build locally owned payment networks to reduce vulnerability to the whims of foreign powers.

Aurore Lalucq, chair of the EU parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee, said last month, “Visa, Mastercard … the urgent issue is our payment system. Trump can cut everything off. The rest is poetry. I urgently request that the commission organise a European Airbus for payment systems: you can’t say you weren’t warned.”

The UK is not planning to go quite that far, and declined to name Trump as the reason for the accelerated timeline. Instead, Bank of England deputy governor Sarah Breeden called out the “challenging and changing cyber and operational risk environment.”

In fact, both Visa and Mastercard are involved in the process, alongside other banks and payment providers. They include Santander UK, NatWest, Nationwide, Lloyds Banking Group, the ATM network body Link, Coventry Building Society and Barclays – whose CEO Vim Maru will chair the first meeting.

The new system is allegedly set to be in place by 2030.