With Apple and Android both unlocked, can account-to-account payment finally rival cards at the checkout?

For years, account-to-account (A2A) payment providers have dreamed of bringing their low-cost, real-time model to the in-store experience. But one key problem kept getting in the way: the experience wasn’t seamless enough to challenge the tap-and-go ease of cards. That may be about to change.

In mid-2024, the European Commission struck a landmark deal with Apple, forcing it to open access to the iPhone’s NFC chip to third-party payment providers. With both Android and iOS now unlocked, a door has opened that could finally give A2A wallets a shot at real parity with cards — and give merchants and consumers a meaningful alternative to the traditional payment rails.

The race is on. But can A2A deliver?

A2A Payments, Rebooted

A2A in-store payments have technically been possible for some time. But the experience has often fallen short, marred by clunky QR codes, awkward authentication flows, and too many screens. Consumers, spoiled by contactless cards and mobile wallets, weren’t interested in waiting even a few extra seconds.

Now, with tap-to-pay functionality available on all major devices, A2A apps can finally offer what was missing: frictionless in-store payments that rival the card experience. And with that, the real advantages of A2A — faster settlement, lower fees, and direct-to-bank transfers — are no longer hidden behind usability issues.

The question is no longer “can they?” It’s “how far can they go?”

The Contactless Advantage

In-store, speed is everything. In markets like the UK, where 93% of card payments are contactless, expectations are sky-high. For A2A wallets to compete, tap-to-pay is the bare minimum – and until now, it simply wasn’t available on iOS.

That changed in December 2024, when Vipps MobilePay launched the first-ever A2A tap-to-pay solution on iPhone, enabling “Tap with Vipps” at stores across Norway. With expansion plans underway for Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, the Nordic region is quickly becoming a proving ground for A2A in-store dominance.

Other markets are following – and fast. Sweden’s Swish has moved from Bluetooth to NFC for Android tap-to-pay. Bizum, used by over half of Spain’s population, is rolling out “Bizum Pay”, enabling A2A and card-linked tap payments later in 2025. In Poland, where Blik already dominates eCommerce, the company is planning iOS tap-to-pay integration this year.  

Crucially, these aren’t just tests or pilots — they’re market-ready rollouts. And they show that the A2A space is no longer content to sit in the shadow of cards.

The Big Economies Lag Behind

However, not everyone is moving at the same speed.

Despite the momentum in Scandinavia, Spain, and Poland, Europe’s biggest economies have been slower to act. The UK has yet to see a major A2A wallet gain traction in-store. In Germany and France, legacy infrastructure and conservative adoption curves are proving hard to shake.

Even Wero, the pan-European A2A wallet backed by the European Payments Initiative, won’t have an in-store solution ready until 2026. That delay risks leaving Europe’s largest markets outpaced by smaller, more agile neighbours — at a time when merchants and consumers alike are increasingly open to change.

For now, it’s the early movers who are defining the space — and setting expectations.

The Cross-Border Payment Battle

While domestic progress is promising, cross-border A2A remains the next big challenge. Regional alliances are forming — including:

• EuroPA: A partnership between Spain’s Bizum, Italy’s Bancomat Pay, and Portugal’s MB Way, which completed its first cross-border transaction in late 2024.
• EMPSA: An alliance including Bancomat Pay, Switzerland’s Twint, and Austria’s Bluecode, focused on cross-border interoperability.

But the road ahead is bumpy. Without a unified European solution, A2A risks becoming fragmented — more complicated for consumers, and harder to scale. Some argue that Wero offers the long-term answer. But in the short term, it’s up to these alliances to prove cross-border A2A is more than a theory.

The pressure is on to prove that A2A can work as well across borders as it does at home — without sacrificing simplicity or reliability.

The Moment of Truth for A2A Wallets

This isn’t just a technical breakthrough — it’s a power shift. For the first time, A2A wallets are competing with cards on the one thing that mattered most: convenience. With NFC access now universal, and major players moving fast, the old excuses no longer apply.

Whether A2A becomes the new default or remains a challenger brand depends on what happens next. Can providers scale fast enough? Can they deliver the reliability, UX, and trust that card payments have built over decades?

One thing’s clear – 2025 will be a crucial year in the battle to redefine Europe’s payment scene, and a new offensive to win in-store transactions is just starting.

About PSE Consulting

PSE Consulting is a leading global provider of payment advisory services to players across the payments landscape. PSE’s expertise has enabled it to deliver actionable market insights and operational optimisation to senior payments leaders for over 30 years. Find out more here.