--- title: Are European Merchant Payments Splitting Into Competing Layers? description: MPE 2026’s keynote lineup includes Visa, Mastercard, Shopify, IXOPAY and payabl. The selection suggests the industry has not settled on a single model for European merchant payments. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-01-30T17:17:45.000Z updated: 2026-03-07T14:32:24.359Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/are-european-merchant-payments-splitting-into-competing-layers image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/mpe-20206-keynote-speakers.webp categories: FinTech content_type: Spotlight region: Europe publication: Sovereign Magazine about: - type: Organization name: MPE (Merchant Payments Ecosystem) description: "MPE (Merchant Payments Ecosystem) is Europe's premier merchant payments conference, attracting over 1,600 attendees annually, including more than 500 merchants. The conference brings together payment service providers, technology vendors, merchants and industry experts to explore the latest developments in European merchant payments, including card acquiring, open banking, embedded finance, payment orchestration and regulatory developments like PSD3.\n\nMPE 2026 takes place in Berlin from 17 to 19 March at the InterContinental hotel. The event features keynote presentations from leading industry figures, interactive workshops, networking opportunities and an Innovation Hub showcasing emerging payment technologies and fintech startups." url: https://www.merchantpaymentsecosystem.com --- [MPE 2026](#about-mpe)‘s keynote speakers are Brice van de Walle from Mastercard, Mathieu Altwegg from Visa, Marco Conte from IXOPAY, Fabian Muessig from Shopify and Breno Oliveira from payabl. These five companies represent competing approaches to European merchant payments. MPE giving them all keynote slots indicates the industry has not decided which approach dominates. MPE attracts over 1,600 attendees, including more than 500 merchants. [The conference is Europe’s main merchant payments event](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/mpe-2026-s-innovation-hub-the-battle-for-the-future-of-payments). Keynote selections reflect industry priorities. The presence of both US card networks and European alternatives on the same programme indicates ongoing tension over payment infrastructure control. Visa and Mastercard handle most European card transactions. Their speakers’ presence reflects current reality. But European policymakers have been pushing to reduce dependency on US payment infrastructure. The networks face anti-competition rulings over interchange structures. The European Central Bank backed Wero specifically because it offers infrastructure European institutions control. payabl’s keynote slot reflects this push. The company joined the European Payments Initiative in October 2025, gaining access to Wero. Wero now has 43.5 million users and backing from BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and ING. Giving payabl a keynote alongside Visa and Mastercard signals the industry takes European alternatives seriously, even if adoption remains uncertain. IXOPAY’s presence alongside both US networks and European alternatives signals merchant demand for flexibility. Orchestration platforms let merchants connect to multiple payment providers through one integration. This matters because it gives merchants the ability to switch between providers or route transactions based on cost and performance. IXOPAY getting a keynote slot indicates merchants want to avoid depending entirely on any single network or provider. Shopify’s keynote represents a different model. The company expanded its embedded payments to 15 additional European countries in March 2025. [Platform-embedded payments](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/non-financial-companies-are-becoming-the-future-of-finance) tie payment processing tightly to inventory and order management. This increases switching costs. Commerce platforms and orchestration platforms promise opposite things. One offers convenience through integration, the other offers flexibility through multiple connections. Both getting keynote slots suggests different merchant segments want different things. The five selections together indicate uncertainty. European institutions want infrastructure they control. US networks still process most transactions. Merchants want the ability to switch between options. Commerce platforms want to bundle everything together. [PSD3 and the Instant Payments Regulation](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/mpe-2026-building-the-next-generation-of-payments-leaders) add pressure by mandating new fraud-sharing requirements and instant settlement. The lineup shows the industry has not resolved these tensions. European alternatives need adoption momentum before network effects lock in existing structures. Orchestration platforms need merchants to value flexibility over integration convenience. US networks need to maintain dominance despite regulatory pressure. Commerce platforms need merchants to accept reduced optionality in exchange for simpler operations. MPE giving all five models keynote slots means the conference is not picking winners. The industry appears to be waiting to see which forces prove stronger: regulatory pressure, merchant preferences, adoption patterns or geopolitical concerns. ### Event: MPE 2026 17 March 2026 – 19 March 2026 In-person Venue: InterContinental Berlin, Berlin, Germany Organized by: Merchant Payment Ecosystem MPE (Merchant Payments Ecosystem) is Europe's premier merchant payments conference, attracting over 1,600 attendees annually, including more than 500 merchants. The conference brings together payment service providers, technology vendors, merchants and industry experts to explore the latest developments in European merchant payments, including card acquiring, open banking, embedded finance, payment orchestration and regulatory developments like PSD3. MPE 2026 takes place in Berlin from 17 to 19 March at the InterContinental hotel. The event features keynote presentations from leading industry figures, interactive workshops, networking opportunities and an Innovation Hub showcasing emerging payment technologies and fintech startups. [Event website](https://www.merchantpaymentsecosystem.com/) ## Further Context **Q: What is payment orchestration and how does it work?** Payment orchestration is a platform layer that sits between merchants and payment providers. It allows merchants to integrate once with the orchestration platform, then connect to multiple payment service providers through that single integration. The platform handles transaction routing, manages connections to different payment methods and providers, unifies reporting and enables merchants to switch between providers without rebuilding technical infrastructure. IXOPAY, Spreedly and Primer are examples of payment orchestration platforms. **Q: What are interchange fees in Europe?** Interchange fees are charges paid by the merchant’s bank to the cardholder’s bank for processing card transactions. In the European Economic Area, consumer card interchange fees are capped at 0.2 per cent for debit cards and 0.3 per cent for credit cards under regulations introduced in 2015. Commercial card fees and cross-border interchange (where the card is issued outside the EEA but used at an EEA merchant) remain uncapped. These uncapped fees have faced legal challenges, including a UK tribunal ruling in June 2025 that found Visa and Mastercard’s default interchange structures violate competition law. **Q: When will PSD3 be implemented?** PSD3 and the Payment Services Regulation reached provisional political agreement in November 2025. Final texts are expected to be published in early 2026. Member states will then have 18 months to transpose PSD3 into national law. Full implementation is likely in 2027 or 2028. The regulation mandates fraud information sharing between payment providers, requires payment account verification before transfers and standardises open banking interfaces across member states. **Q: What is the difference between PSD2 and PSD3?** PSD3 builds on PSD2 by adding stricter fraud prevention requirements, including mandatory sharing of fraud-related information between payment service providers. It standardises open banking interfaces with service level agreement requirements, meaning banks cannot redirect or slow down third-party provider access. PSD3 also introduces verification of payee services, requiring payment providers to check that a recipient’s name and account number match before transfers are authorised. The regulation addresses gaps in PSD2 around consumer protection and cross-border payment fraud. **Q: What is the Instant Payments Regulation?** The Instant Payments Regulation requires all euro payments across the European Union to settle in seconds, 24 hours daily, seven days weekly. Payment service providers in the eurozone must receive instant payments since 9 January 2025 and send instant payments from October 2025. The regulation abolished the previous 100,000 euro threshold for real-time payments. From October 2025, providers must offer verification of payee services. The regulation aims to make instant payments the standard rather than an optional service. **Q: What is Wero and who backs it?** Wero is a pan-European digital wallet launched by the European Payments Initiative. It clears account-to-account payments in under 10 seconds, including cross-border eurozone transactions. Wero avoids interchange fees entirely because merchants pay transaction costs directly rather than percentage-based interchange. The wallet has backing from BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, ING and 13 other major European banks. It now serves 43.5 million Europeans. The European Central Bank explicitly supported Wero because it offers payment infrastructure European institutions control. **Q: How does Shopify Payments work in Europe?** Shopify Payments expanded to 15 additional European countries in March 2025 and now operates in 23 European countries. Merchants using Shopify Payments avoid the additional transaction fees Shopify charges for third-party payment providers. The platform integrates payment acceptance tightly with inventory management, order processing and customer relationship management. This integration convenience reduces technical complexity but increases switching costs because merchants must rebuild multiple systems if they change payment providers. **Q: Who pays interchange fees?** The merchant’s acquiring bank pays interchange fees to the cardholder’s issuing bank. In practice, merchants bear these costs because acquiring banks pass the fees through in their pricing. Interchange fees compensate issuing banks for the risk of extending credit, maintaining fraud prevention systems and providing customer service to cardholders. The fee structure creates an incentive for banks to issue cards but adds costs for merchants accepting those cards. **About MPE (Merchant Payments Ecosystem)** MPE (Merchant Payments Ecosystem) is Europe's premier merchant payments conference, attracting over 1,600 attendees annually, including more than 500 merchants. The conference brings together payment service providers, technology vendors, merchants and industry experts to explore the latest developments in European merchant payments, including card acquiring, open banking, embedded finance, payment orchestration and regulatory developments like PSD3. MPE 2026 takes place in Berlin from 17 to 19 March at the InterContinental hotel. The event features keynote presentations from leading industry figures, interactive workshops, networking opportunities and an Innovation Hub showcasing emerging payment technologies and fintech startups. [Website](https://www.merchantpaymentsecosystem.com)