France

The French retail payments stack is dominated by the Cartes Bancaires domestic scheme, which co-brands with Visa and Mastercard and handles roughly three of every four card transactions at French POS. SEPA Instant Payments have moved from an opt-in experience to a regulatory baseline under the EU Instant Payments Regulation, and domestic wallet integration is consolidating around Wero, the pan-European wallet launched by the European Payments Initiative. France retains relatively resilient cash use but digital growth is strong on both rails and card fronts.