GRA calls for more competition in payment systems
Trade
Image: Brett Jordan via Pexels
The German retail sector is advocating for the development of European alternatives to American payment processors like PayPal. The main reasons cited are high processing fees and security concerns.
The HDE (German Retail Association) says that the dominance of American payment systems such as PayPal leads to significant costs for retailers. It welcomes the increased competition from new providers that can offer more efficient and equally effective solutions, especially for cross-border transactions within Europe.
This support also extends to initiatives by European banks and service providers to create a new payment system.
Recently, German banks reportedly blocked PayPal transactions worth billions of euros due to suspicious activity. Sources revealed that numerous suspicious debits had been reported, ranging from hundreds of millions to individual debits of more than €1 billion. These transactions apparently managed to bypass PayPal’s security filters, but were subsequently blocked by the banks.
The HDE also supports European regulations aimed at standardising real-time payments, believing this would enable the creation of efficient systems without a single dominant operator. It sees similar potential in plans for a digital euro, which aims for an independent payment infrastructure neutrally managed by the Eurosystem.
Business AM