Championing trust and innovation in Europe’s digital economy

Mastercard has been deeply rooted in the economic fabric of Europe for decades. In 2002, we merged with Europay International, coinciding with the adoption of the Euro by 12 nations, a move that unlocked greater connection and commonality across Europe. Together, these events helped shape the future of payments, commerce and travel across the continent. 

We have over 900 million Mastercard-branded cards in circulation across the continent, issued in partnership with our strong network of European banks and fintechs, across each one of the 27 member states of the EU and beyond. Together, we are making everyday transactions seamless for people, businesses, and governments. In fact, in just the second quarter of this year there was more than €800 billion1 in cardholder activity in Europe alone on Mastercard branded cards. 

And Europe is home to more than 9,000 Mastercard employees, from our headquarters in Waterloo, Belgium to our tech hub in Dublin and innovation labs in Amsterdam, Madrid and Stockholm, and inside nearly 30 offices across the continent.  

Europe is our innovation engine. From chip-and-pin to contactless payments, many of our innovations were pioneered here on the continent before being shared with the world, and Europe leads the way with adoption with almost nine in ten in-person card transactions now contactless. We’re proud that Europe was the first region that committed to ending manual card entry online by 2030, and we’re almost halfway there.  

Our teams put Europe’s needs first. As we enter the second quarter of the 21st century, we’re launching flagship measures to support Europe’s resilience, security, governance, and competitiveness: 

Every time someone looks to pay with a Mastercard, they trust that it works and comes with all of the security, consumer protections that they expect. Why? Because that is what we have delivered for them every time they use Mastercard to pay for groceries, holidays, medicine and more. Always on, always there. It’s a huge responsibility that we take incredibly seriously. 

That’s why we’re transforming our technology footprint enabling the localization of our payments infrastructure to create a sustainable, distributed network that can run anywhere. This means always-on infrastructure and reduced vulnerability and greater resilience to natural or geopolitical events.  

As part of this shift, we will establish three new Mastercard data centres in France, to enhance capacity to better serve our customers in Europe and beyond – representing an approximately €250 million investment. These come on top of more than a dozen data centres that we already operate across Europe, ensuring the continued support and security for our customers. 

And when unavoidable incidents occur — for instance, if a merchant’s or bank’s connectivity becomes unavailable — we are able to route transactions to avoid geographical disruptions and can stand-in for other players to ensure transaction continuity.  

Europe has high expectations for us. I personally take pride in the fact that people can count on the enhanced capacity of our state-the-art network across Europe to make their lives easier. Millions rely on our technology to facilitate their lives. That means it has to work, under pressure, around the clock, even during a crisis. We do not settle for anything less. 

Security and trust are the currency of the digital economy. Since 2018, we’ve invested over €9 billion in cybersecurity innovation globally, and employ hundreds of cybersecurity professionals in Europe, with a specific group in Ukraine, reinforcing regional resilience. We’ve just marked 10 years of one of our AI-powered technologies. This one service prevented close to €9 billion in fraud between 2018 and 2024 in Europe alone, keeping banks safe as a second layer of defence.  

But threats evolve. That’s why last year we opened the Mastercard European Cyber Resilience Centre in Belgium—our first outside North America at the time—to drive collaboration and intelligence sharing.  Just this week Mastercard joined the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) Cybersecurity Partnership Program, reinforcing our commitment to public-private collaboration and resilience in Europe. 

Our commitment to Europe’s cybersecurity doesn’t stop at our four walls or our firewalls.  

We work with Europol to fight card data crime and contribute to NATO’s “Locked Shields” cyber defence exercise. With Recorded Future now part of Mastercard, our threat intelligence capabilities to protect Europe are stronger than ever.  

That’s the power of our Mastercard network, bringing global experiences to benefit others across both private and public industries. 

Europe’s needs are unique. As a Systemically Important Payment System in the EU, we take our responsibilities seriously and wear that title as a badge of honour.  

We’re governed by an independent European board, led by me, ensuring objectivity and impartiality.  

The European Union sets the global standard for privacy and data protection with GDPR — standards we’ve supported during their development and then embraced and implemented worldwide. We’re proud to have been among the first to sign the EU AI Pact, demonstrating our commitment to EU values and human-centric AI. 

Our approach to data privacy is simple: It’s your data. You control it. You decide how to use it. We protect it. Full stop.  

We uphold the highest privacy standards and today we pledge to challenge in court any unwarranted attempts to disrupt the security, confidentiality and integrity of Mastercard’s payments ecosystem. 

To fulfil that promise, we developed and implemented Binding Corporate Rules, approved by EU data protection authorities, confirming that we are upholding the highest standards of privacy and the GDPR for European data, wherever it goes. 

This commitment led us to create Truata with another technology leader to form Europe’s first data trust which was an important effort to enable innovation as these standards came to life. We continue to embrace this commitment to the benefit of companies across the continent. 

We’re also partnering with EU governments, industry, civil society and academics to advance the thinking on novel digital issues and to share best practices in cybersecurity, privacy-enhancing technologies as well as responsible AI. 

This all builds on our continued efforts to develop new systems to be more quantum resistant and quantum proof as we prepare for technologies yet to come.  

Finally, Mastercard Europe SA, our Belgian-incorporated legal entity, contracts exclusively under European laws—ensuring full accountability to EU stakeholders and alignment with EU values. That’s why our governance framework has earned an “outstanding” rating from an independent body approved by the National Bank of Belgium—for three years running. 

At Mastercard, we power economies and empower people. And it is small businesses that are the backbone of Europe’s economy that drive Europe’s competitive advantage. 

They are the job creators, the problem solvers and the innovators. We need to support them and the entrepreneurs behind them. Because when we make it easier for small businesses to connect to capital, leverage networks of expertise and connect to the digital economy, we see broad-based economic growth that lifts entire communities. 

That’s why, over the past 5 years, through our Center for Inclusive Growth, we’ve supported more than 4.6 million small businesses across Europe to digitize. The €4.5 million Mastercard Strive Innovation Fund, launched last year, has funded more than 10 European startups develop solutions for small businesses. 

Today, we commit to launching a free cybersecurity education programme for more than 10 million European SMEs, in addition to setting up a lighthouse programme in Belgium to accelerate startup innovation. 

Looking ahead 

Europe has everything it needs to succeed in the global economy and Mastercard is committed to be a critical partner. Our work with governments, organisations, businesses, and consumers fosters resilience, enhances digital security, and drives growth—all backed by the trust and protections Europeans have expected of us for the last quarter century.  

We are excited about what’s to come. There should be no doubt about the next 25 years of innovation, trust and growth in Europe. We’re all in. So let’s get started.