A cross-border merchant selling into France, Germany, and the Netherlands asked us to look at their payment approval rate after noticing it had drifted down over eighteen months — nothing dramatic, roughly 3-4 percentage points, but enough to matter at their volume. The payment stack hadn't changed since 2021: card processing, PayPal, and bank transfer, with 3-D Secure configured to challenge every transaction regardless of risk. Customers were abandoning at the SCA step, especially on mobile, where switching to a banking app mid-checkout to approve a challenge is exactly the kind of friction that kills conversion.
Europe's payment landscape hasn't stood still since 2021, and a stack that isn't reviewed periodically starts costing money quietly.
A payments stack built for 2022, running in 2026
Regulation and consumer habits have both moved. On the regulatory side, PSD2 is being reworked into PSD3 alongside a new Payment Services Regulation, both still moving through the EU legislative process rather than fully in force — worth tracking rather than reacting to yet. The Instant Payments Regulation (EU) 2024/886, on the other hand, is already binding, requiring banks in the euro area to offer instant SEPA credit transfers and receive them at the same cost as standard transfers. On the consumer side, digital wallets are now a default expectation rather than a nice-to-have, BNPL has matured into a regulated credit product, and account-to-account payments are slowly moving from interesting pilot to real checkout option.
SCA and 3-D Secure: the baseline, not the finish line
Strong Customer Authentication under PSD2 requires two of three factors — something you know, have, or are — for most online card payments, typically implemented through 3-D Secure 2. The mistake we still see: merchants treating SCA as a fixed requirement rather than something payment providers can apply intelligently. 3DS2 supports risk-based authentication and exemptions (low-value transactions, trusted beneficiaries, low-fraud merchant history) that can skip the extra challenge step for lower-risk payments. If your payment provider is challenging every single transaction, ask whether exemption rules are actually configured — that's frequently a setup gap, not a legal requirement.
Instant payments and the SEPA shift
The Instant Payments Regulation means SEPA credit transfers can now settle in seconds rather than the one-to-two business days merchants and customers got used to. For checkout, this opens the door to bank-transfer-as-a-real-payment-option rather than "we'll ship once the transfer clears in two days" — some merchants are already testing instant-transfer-based checkout flows through account-to-account providers as a lower-fee alternative to card processing.
| Payment method | Settlement speed | Typical merchant fee profile | EU regulatory status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card (3DS2) | 1-3 business days | Interchange + scheme fees | Mature, PSD2-governed |
| SEPA instant credit transfer | Seconds | Lower than card, capped under IPR | Binding — (EU) 2024/886 |
| A2A / open banking | Seconds to minutes | Often lower than card | Growing under PSD2 access-to-account rules |
| BNPL | Immediate for merchant, deferred for customer | Provider fee, often 2-6% | Now under Consumer Credit Directive (EU) 2023/2225 |
| Digital euro (proposed) | Not yet live | Not yet defined | Legislative proposal, not in force |
Buy Now, Pay Later under new credit rules
BNPL used to sit in a regulatory gray area in several EU markets. The revised Consumer Credit Directive (EU) 2023/2225 changes that, bringing most BNPL products under standard consumer credit rules — meaning creditworthiness checks, clearer pre-contractual information, and standardized cancellation rights. For merchants, this doesn't remove BNPL as an option, but it does mean the add-a-BNPL-button-and-forget-it era is ending. Providers integrating with PrestaShop are adjusting their flows to stay compliant, and merchants should expect slightly more friction at the BNPL approval step going forward, not less.
Account-to-account payments and open banking
A2A payments let customers pay directly from their bank account through an authorized third-party provider, skipping card networks entirely. Adoption in Europe is still early relative to cards, but it's growing, particularly for higher-value purchases where card interchange fees eat more into margin. For a PrestaShop merchant, integrating A2A usually means adding a payment module from a licensed open banking provider rather than building anything custom — check that any provider you evaluate is properly authorized under PSD2 before integrating.
The digital euro: what's real and what's still a proposal
The digital euro is a European Central Bank project, still at the proposal and preparation stage as of 2026 — it is not a live payment method merchants can integrate today. It's worth watching because the ECB has been explicit that a digital euro would need to work at the point of sale, online and offline, but treating it as something to build for in the next product roadmap would be premature. We'd file this under "monitor," not "implement."
Preparing your PrestaShop payment stack
- [ ] Confirm your payment provider supports 3DS2 risk-based exemptions, not blanket challenges
- [ ] Evaluate at least one A2A/open banking module if your average order value is high enough to benefit from lower fees
- [ ] Review your BNPL provider's compliance with the updated Consumer Credit Directive
- [ ] Add SEPA instant transfer as an option if your bank and payment provider support it
- [ ] Revisit payment method ordering by country — local preferences differ significantly across the EU
Payment choice is only half the story — how those options are presented matters just as much, which we cover in future of checkout optimization. A cluttered or slow checkout will undercut even the best payment mix, so it's worth reading alongside reducing cart abandonment and our compliance notes on the Digital Markets Act if you sell through large online platforms as well as your own store.
Before adding anything new, pull last quarter's payment approval and abandonment rates by method and by country. If SCA challenges are concentrated on a specific payment provider or country, that's your starting point — not a wholesale stack replacement.
Frequently asked questions
Is Strong Customer Authentication required for every online payment in the EU? Not always — 3DS2 supports risk-based exemptions for low-value transactions, trusted beneficiaries, and merchants with a strong low-fraud history, meaning some payments can skip the extra authentication step. If your payment provider is challenging every transaction regardless of risk, that's usually a configuration gap rather than a legal requirement.
Is the digital euro something I need to support now? No. The digital euro is a European Central Bank project still at the proposal and preparation stage as of 2026, not a live payment method. It's worth monitoring for the future, but there's nothing to integrate yet, and treating it as an urgent roadmap item would be premature.
What changed for BNPL providers under EU rules? The revised Consumer Credit Directive (EU) 2023/2225 brought most BNPL products under standard consumer credit regulation, requiring creditworthiness checks, clearer pre-contractual information, and standardized cancellation rights. Merchants offering BNPL should expect slightly more friction at the approval step as providers adjust their flows to stay compliant.
What does the Instant Payments Regulation actually require? (EU) 2024/886 requires banks in the euro area to offer instant SEPA credit transfers, settling within seconds, and to charge no more for them than standard transfers. For merchants, it makes bank-transfer-based checkout options genuinely viable for the first time, rather than something that only made sense for slow, delayed transfers.
Are account-to-account payments worth adding to my checkout? They can be worth testing, particularly for higher-value orders where card interchange fees cut into margin more. Adoption is still early relative to cards, so it's best added alongside existing payment methods rather than replacing them, and only through a provider properly authorized under PSD2's access-to-account rules.
Related reading
- Future of Checkout Optimization
- Best Practices for Reducing Cart Abandonment
- AI-Powered Dynamic Pricing Explained
- Digital Markets Act: Does It Affect Your Store?
- AI Fraud Detection for Online Stores
