A Chinese-style payment network to challenge Visa and Mastercard is taking shape in Europe

Mobile money is getting a boost in Europe: A new initiative plans to make six of the region’s smartphone wallets interoperable with each other, creating a total network of 5 million users in 10 European countries, from Finland to Portugal. The burgeoning system could potentially pose a challenge to the Visa and Mastercard card-payment duopoly. Notably, the mobile wallets—Bluecode, ePassi, Momo Pocket, Pagaqui, Pivo, and Vipps—are working with Chinese fintech giant Alipay to develop a unified QR code, according to a statement. Around 190,000 merchants in Europe accept payments from the wallet providers, and Chinese tourists using Alipay (membership) would also be able to tap into the system.