European financial geography: personal experiences

The financial world isn’t flat. International firms tend to cluster in places where they are welcomed and where they find expertise. Here are some illustrations from my own financial transactions:

  • I bought Etherium in order to buy a tweet. My euros went to the bank account of Light Technology Ltd in Switzerland
  • I hired a designer on Fiverr (I’ll tell you why in the coming weeks). My payment went to Cyprus
  • I receive the royalties from the European sales of Bankers are people, too from an Amazon account in Luxembourg

European Payments Initiative

A group of 16 European banks are working on a unified card and digital wallet that can be used across Europe.

The founders of the European Payments Initiative (EPI) include all major French, German and Spanish banks.

I’m curious why Intesa Sanpaolo1 and the Austrian and Nordic banks haven’t joined.

A pan-European payment solution is long overdue. Payment providers like Visa, Mastercard and PayPal have profit margins that European banks can only dream of. Increased competition and lower prices would be great for sellers and consumers.