In recent years, the payments landscape in Europe has been evolving at a pace that leaves no room for complacency or attachment to legacy operating models. Change is not something that will happen “sometime in the future”; it is already underway, often without even being noticed by the end user.

Instant Account-to-Account (A2A) payments, established national solutions such as IRIS, pan-European cooperation initiatives such as EuroPA and Wero, as well as the ongoing discussion around the digital euro, are not competing ideas but complementary ones. They are pieces of the same puzzle: a new European payments architecture built on speed, low cost, interoperability and strategic autonomy — with solutions developed in Europe, for Europe.

Gradually, another accelerator is being added to this landscape: agentic commerce. These new digital commerce environments leverage artificial intelligence, allowing intelligent digital assistants to search, compare and complete purchases on behalf of consumers, with minimal human intervention and based on prior authorization. In such environments, payment ceases to be a standalone moment; it becomes embedded in the underlying infrastructure. And when payment becomes invisible, strategic importance shifts from the button to the system that supports it — and to how immediate, reliable and cost-efficient that system can be.

Within this context, some European banks react with defensive reflexes. They perceive instant payments as a potential threat to established card revenues and new European collaborations as a possible loss of control. While understandable, this stance is risky in the long term.

Existing payments business models in Europe have been built over decades around successful and universally adopted card infrastructures. The revenue streams generated by these — credit, debit and commercial payments — are often presented as a unified whole, making any new form of payment a subject of reasonable caution. In Greece in particular, where no domestic card scheme exists — unlike countries such as France, Germany or Italy — these models have been built almost exclusively on the American schemes Visa and Mastercard.

History shows that “the natural tendency of every mature system is to protect its existing structures — even when the world around it changes.” Yet in the era of instant payments, the real risk is not the decline of a single revenue stream or its replacement by another. It is the loss of role. In a world where payment is invisibly embedded in the flow of life — and digital decision-making — those who are not part of the infrastructure gradually diminish.

Instant payments are not here to overturn the entire existing model, but to complement it. They primarily address everyday, low-value transactions, where debit cards dominate, offering an efficient and transparent domestic alternative for citizens and businesses. The challenge is not denial, but absorption of change: moving from defending a one-dimensional model to participating in a broader ecosystem that provides choice and flexibility to the end user.

In this framework, Europe’s response is neither fragmented nor confrontational. It is coordinated. Initiatives such as EuroPA, Wero and discussions around the future digital euro aim to ensure that, in a borderless digital environment, Europe continues to rely on infrastructures that operate under European terms. Payment is not merely a transaction method; it is a critical economic function. Control over its infrastructure carries strategic importance.

In this shifting landscape, the differences between traditional banks and newer digital players become more visible. Established banks hold significant advantages: long-standing customer relationships, physical presence, institutional trust, deep regulatory expertise and critical infrastructure. At the same time, however, they operate on complex and mature business models, with architectures and processes that evolve cautiously and at a measured pace. Neobanks, by contrast, have been designed from the outset around simplicity of experience, digital-first presence and agility in integrating new functionalities, including new payment solutions. The comparison is not about who is “ahead” or “behind,” but about who can turn change into an organic continuation of their operations. In the new environment, advantage does not lie in speed alone, but in the combination of scale, trust and adaptability — factors that determine which institutions will continue to shape the ecosystem and which will merely follow it. Some established banks have already recognized this and are beginning to reap the benefits.

Within this environment, Greece currently occupies a distinctive position. With nationwide acceptance of instant payments, it is the first European market where a domestic A2A product, such as IRIS, is available both in e-commerce and at physical points of sale (POS), at national scale. Tens of thousands of online stores and more than one million physical acceptance points already offer payments via IRIS. The product is now widely available. The critical question, however, is not the existence of the infrastructure, but whether it will be utilized. In an ecosystem where habits have been shaped over decades around cards, the real challenge lies in awareness, familiarity and improving user experience through banks’ mobile apps, along with the right incentives. Otherwise, a national infrastructure of European significance risks remaining underutilized — not due to technological limitations, but due to inertia.

At this point, an important clarification is necessary. The history of technology shows that infrastructures do not mature first and then get adopted; the opposite is true. True maturity comes through usage, daily friction and gradual optimization. The same applies to instant payments. IRIS today is not in a pilot phase; it has the right architecture, the necessary scale and institutional support. The next phase is not waiting for the “perfect experience,” but active adoption — enabling the product to evolve organically, supported by the banks that offer it, where it truly matters: in the daily lives of citizens and businesses.

In the new world of payments, success does not belong to those who cling nostalgically to the past, but to those who adapt in time and embrace change before it overtakes them. Payment is becoming invisible, infrastructure moves backstage, and power shifts accordingly. The cost of inertia is no longer measured only in revenue lines, but in role, time and strategic positioning. In this environment, the brand of the payment method becomes less critical, while the quality of the underlying infrastructure becomes paramount: how immediate, reliable and cost-efficient it is.