TSG’s Directory of European Merchant Acquirers identifies and simplifies the diverse and complex European acquiring space with statistics on more than 180 of the continent’s payment players collectively processing trillions in purchase volume for millions of merchants.
While analyzing the Directory, a variety of merchant acquiring insights stand out. Read on for key takeaways, commentary on the European merchant acquiring space, and how it compares or contrasts to the U.S.
Key Takeaways
- Over 40 entities across 14 different European countries process more than $20B in annual volume in the European market, showing the industry’s highly competitive nature.
- However, in 2023, the top five players processed an estimated ~$2.3 trillion in European card volume. This represents nearly 40% of the volume represented in the report.
- Looking at the top-ranked companies, Worldpay is the largest European processor with $525B in sales volume and 12.5B transactions. Adyen finishes second, with $523B in total European processing volume. Nexi Payments is the largest in the number of merchants served across Europe, supporting 2.9M merchants.
- In a fragmented acquiring space such as Europe with different currencies, legislative bodies, and payment methods, having over a million clients is an impressive feat – only Nexi Payments, Stripe, and Worldline manage to hit that threshold, with the group collectively serving over six million European merchants.
- While Visa and Mastercard are almost universally marketed as being accepted through the entities represented, American Express and Discover availability is only 66% and 43%, respectively.
- However, the lack of marketed acceptance does not indicate that these listed providers do not accept those payment methods. It is very common for card networks to partner with other large payment networks (such as JCB and UnionPay) to offer acceptance anywhere those card brands are accepted jointly.
- Almost 40% of merchant acquirers in the report focus primarily on the U.K. payment market.
- 58% of listed providers that market the availability of a payment gateway solution to their merchants offer an in-house or otherwise white-labeled solution.
- In comparison to the U.S. market, where 38% of providers present their payment gateway offering as their solution, either proprietarily or through a white-label partner.
- While this could indicate that European acquirers developed their own gateway solutions at a higher proportional rate than U.S. acquirers, it is more likely that they have found higher strategic value in marketing their white-label provider’s solution as if it were their own.
- Analyzing all providers that market a smart point of sale offering, PAX is the most offered solution, with 38% of listed European acquirers offering this brand.
- Compared to the U.S. market, where 38% of listed providers offer the Clover smart POS solution from Fiserv, only 9% of listed European acquirers offer Clover solutions.
- Nearly 32% of listed acquirers do not visibly market or otherwise offer the availability of an in-person smart POS terminal. Indicating that several acquirers active on the continent are focused on eCommerce merchants.
General Commentary: Merchant Acquiring Insights
Those familiar with the U.S. payment industry may find European merchant acquiring comparatively complex. While the fundamental payment flow is similar, what is not is the varying degrees of legislative complexity in each country and the considerations needed to enable seamless cross-border payments, among other factors.
A specific material example is the difference in payment methods utilized at the point of sale. According to Worldpay’s 2024 Global Payments Report, Europe has a higher percentage of cash usage (+33%) and debit card usage (+46%) compared to the U.S., while the U.S. has a much higher proportion of credit card payments at the physical point of sale (+95%). For eCommerce payments, in Europe, A2A (Account to Account) payments are much more common (+260%), while digital wallets have a higher proportion of total eCommerce payments in the U.S. (+23%).
The competitive landscape of the space is also different to the U.S. Well-known acquirers active in the United States, such as Worldpay, Fiserv, Elavon, and Global Payments, are heavily active in the European payment space. However, in Europe, there is a much greater emphasis on the involvement of financial institutions in the acquiring process. In many cases, it may not make sense for a merchant in one country to enlist the processing services of a European acquirer located in another country due to legal complexity. Alternatively, perhaps a reason is as simple as wishing to work with a processing provider that has the same language, culture, and proximity to the merchant. Often, these familiar global players work with these regional European financial institutions, partnering or structuring joint ventures (Ex. Fiserv and AIB) to offer their processing services white-labeled as they do with U.S. financial institutions.
However, some European-based institutions have extensive market share that challenges these multi-continental players with whom we are familiar. Nexi Payments, Worldline, and Barclaycard are notable examples of merchant processing entities within the top five of the European Acquiring Directory that are heavily invested throughout several European countries. Further, well-known European challengers active globally, such as Stripe and Adyen, unsurprisingly find themselves at the top of the European acquiring industry food chain and will be important to track in the coming years.
If you have questions or want to learn more about the Directory of European Merchant Acquirers, please contact us or email our eReports team at ereports@tsgpayments.com.
Note: Most entities acknowledged within this article and represented within the referenced companion report are believed to own a portfolio of merchant accounts or hold a strategic interest in the management of their merchants’ internal payment processing functions, to the extent that they merit inclusion as a “merchant acquirer.”