Why Europe's Banking Leaders Are Calling for Alternatives to Visa and Mastercard
Europe's payments leaders are calling for alternatives to Visa and Mastercard. Here is why, and where KAELUM fits alongside Wero and the digital euro.
Why Europe's Banking Leaders Are Calling for Alternatives to Visa and Mastercard
By Greggar Deterville, Founder and CEO, KAELUM Technologies Ltd | 18 February 2026
In February 2026, the chief executive of the European Payments Initiative, Martina Weimert, made an urgent public call, reported in the Financial Times, for alternatives to Visa and Mastercard. It was not an isolated remark. ECB President Christine Lagarde has made the same point repeatedly: Europe's everyday payments depend on infrastructure that Europe does not control.
KAELUM was built as an answer to that call.
The Problem: Dependency at the Checkout
Visa and Mastercard accounted for roughly 61% of euro area card payments in 2022, according to the ECB. Thirteen euro area countries have no national card scheme of their own. In the UK, up to 95% of card transactions run on the same two networks.
That concentration is a cost problem and a resilience problem. Merchants pay layered fees on every transaction. And decisions about pricing, access and rules are made by companies headquartered outside Europe, whose priorities will not always match Europe's.
The European Response
Europe is not standing still. The European Payments Initiative's Wero has been available for e-commerce in Germany since late 2025 and in France and Belgium since January 2026, with in-store payments rolling out through the year. It is a serious and well-backed effort, but it is early, geographically limited, and will need several billion euros more to reach full scale.
The digital euro is further away still: 2029 at the earliest, with offline use central to its design.
Both are important. Both will take years. In the meantime, merchants and customers need options that work in the commerce they do today.
What KAELUM Is
KAELUM is an Ai-native digital commerce currency platform for customers, creators and merchants. Its currency, KAE, is fixed at £0.20 per unit and is spent with participating KAELUM merchants and creators.
- Customers receive a discount of 6% or more on goods when they spend KAE with participating merchants. A 4.5% platform fee applies.
- Creators earn through Social Paylinks and Commerce Drops.
- Merchants accept KAE and gain commerce intelligence and a new route to customers.
Every transaction is governed by K.A.T.E., the KAELUM Audivo Triovus Engine, powered exclusively by Claude from Anthropic. K.A.T.E. checks every payment for fraud and compliance, and sensitive actions pass human approval gates. K.A.T.E. governs the rails. You govern the spend.
European by Design
Top-ups and redemptions are designed to run on European Open Banking through TrueLayer. Card top-ups through Stripe are an optional on-ramp only. SEPA coverage for users in the EU will depend on a future partner. We would rather state that plainly than hide it.
Where KAELUM Stands
KAELUM is built and in pre-launch testing. KAELUM is pre-launch and is working towards the appropriate regulatory permissions before it takes any customer funds.
The call from Europe's banking leaders describes a gap that will take years for institutional projects to close. KAELUM is built to help close it sooner, alongside them, not against them.
Join the KAELUM waiting list at kaelum.app/Waitlist to be ready from launch.
Crypto is powered by Blockchain. KAELUM is powered by Ai.
KAELUM Technologies Ltd is registered in England and Wales (Company No. 16681154). KAE is a digital commerce currency and is not a cryptocurrency, security or investment instrument. References to third-party statements are drawn from published reporting and are not endorsements of KAELUM. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Contact: info@kaelumtechnologies.com | kaelum.app