The second major trend is the competition to dominate payments on a global scale. Payments are subject to strong network effects: the more users a payment system has, the more attractive it becomes to new users. Scale matters - this limits the field and inevitably leads to just a few service providers dominating the payments market. Europe has fallen behind in this competition.
The lack of payments integration in Europe means that foreign providers have taken the lead. This is not necessarily a concern, as long as foreign firms are accountable and subject to appropriate regulation and oversight, in accordance with the principle of same business, same risk, same regulation.