The battle for the global payments system is underway

“IT IS imperative for the ECB (European Central Bank) to introduce a digital euro,” said Philip Lane, the bank’s chief economist, in a recent speech. Earlier last month, Paschal Donohoe, president of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, spoke of a “heightened level of urgency” in progressing to a digital currency. Take heed. These remarks show that even as Donald Trump’s tariffs take up most of Europe’s attention, some Europeans are alert to the next geoeconomic front: a US push to shore up its dominance of international payments.

They are right to be concerned. Among Trump’s flurry of executive orders is one promoting the worldwide use of privately issued “stablecoins” denominated in US dollars. There is every reason to expect him to put muscle behind it. His administration is stacked with people deeply involved in the payments technology business, such as Elon Musk (who first hit it big with PayPal) and Howard Lutnick (who has ties to stablecoin issuer Tether). These disrupters may not see eye to eye with the old governing elite about much, but they agree on the power and profit to be had from retaining US control over global payments.

That system is on the cusp of huge change, for both political and technological reasons. The weaponisation of the US dollar-based financial system – note how America has cut off access by adversaries to Swift messaging for bank transfers – has prompted quests for alternatives. Ideas include a currency and payments system run by and for Brics countries. Technologies such as stablecoins offer an instant, cheap and 24/7 alternative to the expensive, slow and cumbersome legacy of correspondent banking.