The Bank of France, through the National Payments Committee it chairs, published a statement reaffirming that strategic autonomy in payments should be strengthened as part of European economic sovereignty. The committee said France's payments sector currently rests on three complementary pillars: satisfactory access to cash and an effective cash distribution infrastructure, the domestic Cartes Bancaires card scheme with renewed momentum in card co-badging after recent commitments from several payment service providers, and the European payment solution Wero, which already has 53 million users in Europe and is due to become available for online payments in France from the second half of 2026. The statement added that these sovereignty tools could later be complemented by the digital euro, with applications recently collected for a pilot exercise planned from 2027, while EU legislation on the digital euro is still awaiting adoption and a public private partnership will need to be consolidated for its design and distribution. It also welcomed the launch on 7 May 2026 of the national register of accounts flagged for fraud risk, which allows payment service providers to report and share suspicious IBANs and complements anti-fraud measures including verification of the payee introduced in October 2025. The committee said the register could serve as a reference model for EU-wide fraud data-sharing under the future Payment Services Regulation, and it linked its national priorities to the Eurosystem's new payments strategy while calling for the European Union's retail payments strategy to be updated to reflect technological change and payments sovereignty.
Bank of France2026-05-28
Bank of France chaired National Payments Committee reaffirms payments sovereignty and highlights Wero rollout from the second half of 2026
The Bank of France, via the National Payments Committee, reaffirmed that strengthening strategic autonomy in payments is central to European economic sovereignty, highlighting three pillars: cash access and infrastructure, the domestic Cartes Bancaires scheme, and the European payment solution Wero. The committee said these tools could later be complemented by a digital euro, noted the launch of a national register of accounts flagged for fraud risk as a potential model for EU-wide fraud data-sharing under the future Payment Services Regulation, and urged updating the EU retail payments strategy to reflect technological change and payments sovereignty.