The Business Case for Banks to Offer A2A Payments - The Briefing | On The Wire

Card acquiring is the safe line on a bank's payments P&L. Until you look at the slope. EU interchange caps took 30-45% out of margins since 2015. Fintech acquirers keep winning on price. Mid-sized European banks now lose 10-12% of merchants a year to lower-cost competitors, accelerating.Most banks treat A2A as a defensive hedge - something to offer so merchants don't leave. The math says it's the offensive line.This briefing walks the numbers on one example: a mid-sized European bank with 18,500 merchants and €47M in card acquiring revenue. €785K to integrate payware's transaction resolution network. €240K/year ongoing. By year 2, €7.75M of new A2A revenue plus €3.2M of card revenue retained from merchants who would have churned. By year 5, €97.84M cumulative net value, 14-month payback, churn from 12% down to 3.8%, NPS up 34 points.Full episode for the build-versus-join comparison (€8-12M and 24-30 months versus €785K and 6-9 months), the year-by-year financial model, three bank case studies, the risk register, and the decision framework for whether your bank should move now or wait.Full source material and the complete business case: https://go.payware.eu/p-bank-case-bProduced by payware - the transaction resolution network for instant A2A payments.AI-generated from payware's published research and documentation.