Banks to create alternative to Mastercard and Visa over Trump threat

The heads of Britain’s biggest banks are set to hold their first meeting this week to establish a national alternative to Visa and Mastercard, amid growing fears over President Trump’s ability to turn off US-owned payment systems.

The meeting, chaired by Vim Maru, Barclays’ UK chief executive, will take place on Thursday and bring together a group of City funders that will front the costs of a new payments company to keep the UK economy running if problems were to occur.

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About 95 per cent of UK card transactions are made using payment systems owned by Mastercard and Visa, according to a 2025 report by the UK’s Payment Systems Regulator.

EVAN VUCCI/AP

The City-funded, but government-backed, initiative has been under discussion for years. However, Trump’s recent threats against Nato allies over Greenland have amplified concerns that an over-reliance on US companies could put UK payments — and the wider economy — at risk.

“If Mastercard and Visa were turned off, it would send us back to the 1950s,” one executive familiar with the project told the Guardian, which first reported the story. “Of course, we need a sovereign payments system.”

The potential disruption could be vast. In Russia, where businesses are reliant on Visa and Mastercard for 60 per cent of payments, US sanctions that forced the companies to turn off their services left ordinary people stranded without access to funds and unable to buy goods.

The banks and payment companies that use Mastercard and Visa include Santander UK, NatWest, Nationwide, Lloyds Banking Group, the ATM network body Link, and Coventry Building Society.

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Similar concerns are being raised in the EU, where politicians have taken a vocal stance on building locally owned networks that could not be turned off on a whim by foreign powers. Aurore Lalucq, the chair of the European parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee, issued a stark warning that went viral last month about relying on US companies for such an essential service.

“Visa, Mastercard … the urgent issue is our payment system. Trump can cut everything off,” Lalucq said. “The rest is poetry. I urgently request that the commission organise a European Airbus for payment systems: you can’t say you weren’t warned.”