‘Just In Case’: European Bank Chief Suggests Decoupling Payment System from US
In wake of Trump’s tariffs, LeGarde proposes alternative to Mastercard and Visa
With Donald Trump’s blanket tariffs roiling the economy not only in the United States, but across the globe, the chief of the European Central Bank is proposing that Europe create its own payment system to decouple from US and Chinese providers.
Christine LaGarde, who prior to her current position led the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Washington DC, made her suggestions in an interview Monday.
Trump last week announced sweeping new tariffs on more than 60 countries, including many of those in Europe who have previously been staunch allies and trading partners with the United States.
These new policies are pushing leaders in Europe and elsewhere internationally both to work with the Trump administration to end this trade war, but also forge new economic ties without the United States.
Such is the case with LaGarde suggesting that Europe build its own payment infrastructure that avoids such big and well-known US providers as Mastercard and Visa, as well as China’s Alipay.
It’s important to have “digital payment under our control,” she said.
“When you think of it, at the moment, a lot of our digital payment — when you [use] e-commerce, or peer-to- peers, or you use your card or your phone — you always rely on non-European infrastructure.”
Whether a European consumer is paying with a card or phone, it goes through Visa, Mastercard, PayPal or China’s Alipay, LaGarde explained.
And none of it is based in Europe, she added.
“I think that we have to reduce that vulnerability, and make sure that there is a European [alternative]. Just in case. You never know,” she said.
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