Europe · GDP rank #7
France
FR · EUR @ 1.1595/USD
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.
Tab 08
Pulse
The preceding ~90 days of macro, regulation, product, funding and milestone events. Each item is primary-sourced; no trade-press echo.
- 5 days agolaunch
Nuvei joins EPI to enable Wero acceptance for European merchants
Nuvei announced it had joined the European Payments Initiative to enable Wero payments across European e-commerce merchants, with France a primary launch market. The PSP integration brings Wero acceptance to non-bank-acquired merchants in France, addressing the long-tail acceptance gap that has constrained P2M volume since the wallet's 2024 launch.
- #wero
- #epi
- #nuvei
- #launch
Source: Nuvei
- 3 weeks agodata
Banque de France: SCT Inst volume up 120% YoY post-IPR mandate
Banque de France's Q1 2026 payments bulletin confirmed SCT Inst volumes in France rose 120% year-on-year following the IPR's October 2025 entry into force on the sending side. Instant now represents roughly 8% of total SCT volume; Banque de France attributes the jump to fee parity rather than consumer demand.
- #sepa-instant
- #ipr
- #banque-de-france
- #data
Source: Banque de France
- 7 weeks agodata
OSMP 2024 annual report: card fraud declines 9% as SCA matures
Banque de France's payment security observatory released its 2024 report, showing a 9% year-on-year drop in card fraud to €464m. CNP fraud — still 78% of total — fell in absolute terms for the second consecutive year as 3DS coverage held above 92%.
- #osmp
- #fraud
- #sca
- #3ds
Source: OSMP / Banque de France
- 2 months agolaunch
Wero P2M pilot opens with five merchants in France
EPI's Wero consumer-to-merchant pilot launched in France with carrefour.fr, Boulanger, Rakuten France, Leroy Merlin and Decathlon. Rollout to the full merchant base is expected during Q3 2026, alongside parallel deployments in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
- #wero
- #epi
- #p2m
- #merchants
Source: European Payments Initiative
- 3 months agomilestone
Cartes Bancaires reports 14.5B transactions in 2024, +6% YoY
Groupement Cartes Bancaires CB confirmed 14.5 billion domestic card transactions in 2024, up 6% on 2023 and representing roughly 75% of all card payments at French POS. CB's co-badge architecture and lower MDR continue to insulate the domestic scheme from international-scheme displacement.
- #cb
- #data
- #milestone
Source: Groupement Cartes Bancaires CB
- 3 months agoregulation
DGFIP confirms B2B e-invoicing phasing — September 2026 for receive
DGFIP released the final decree confirming phased implementation of mandatory B2B electronic invoicing. All businesses must be able to receive e-invoices from 1 September 2026; large companies must issue from the same date; SMBs from 1 September 2027.
- #dgfip
- #e-invoicing
- #vat
Source: DGFIP