An interview with Eus Peters, director of the Dutch Retail Council
Representing the collective interests of retailers at both national and European level, the Dutch Retail Council (Raad Nederlandse Detailhandel/RND) is focused on themes such as fair competition, digitalization and the future of payments within the European market.
In this interview, Eus Peters, director of the Dutch Retail Council, shares his perspectives on the changing European payments landscape, including the growing concerns around percentage-based pricing structures and reversibility, and why merchants continue to appreciate payment certainty and predictable costs. The conversation also explores how Pay by Bank could add meaningful value within Europe’s evolving economic infrastructure.
New initiatives such as Wero, Pay by Bank and the future digital euro are reshaping how consumers pay and how merchants receive money. How do you view these developments?
Several developments in Europe’s payments landscape are converging at the same time. First, there is a growing desire to keep payment data within Europe and strengthen the EU’s resilience in response to geopolitical and technological dependencies.
Second, payment methods are moving toward unified mobile wallet experiences that are usable online, in-store and – eventually – offline as well. That raises the question of who will become the default payment layer for consumers.
And third, there is a growing debate between public and private payment providers about their future roles. Governments want to guarantee acceptance of public payment instruments such as cash and the digital euro, while at the same time trying to keep payments ‘free’ for consumers. The challenge is that someone ultimately pays the bill – and that is often the merchant.
Retailers need payment methods that are secure, efficient, fast and low-risk, while operating within a fair and competitive market. Yet many merchants struggle to understand why pricing models are increasingly shifting toward percentage-based fees, often resulting in significantly higher costs.
Payments are not just another commercial product. They are part of critical economic infrastructure. If consumers receive everything for free while competition remains limited, regulation may be necessary to prevent merchants from becoming trapped in an increasingly unbalanced system.
Where do you see Pay by Bank making the clearest difference compared to other alternatives?
Pay by Bank is simple, closely aligned with the payment experience consumers already know, and easy to integrate into existing online checkout flows. What also stands out is the promise of predictable fixed-fee pricing instead of percentage-based pricing structures.
And importantly, Pay by Bank offers payment certainty. In a market where more payment methods are introducing reversibility and dispute mechanisms, there is also value in payment methods that function more like cash: once the transaction is completed, the payment is final.
Consumers already have strong protections through return policies, merchant conditions and credit card dispute mechanisms. How do you view these existing safeguards?
Europe does indeed already have extensive consumer protections in place. Historically, the balance was relatively clearcut: consumers – in the Netherlands, at least – used iDEAL for domestic online purchases and credit cards for international transactions.
Debit payments traditionally worked like cash: immediate exchange and settlement. Credit cards, by definition, involved borrowing and therefore reversibility, and also offered additional protections because they were credit products.
Now that Europe is further consolidating payment systems, there is a real risk that the lines between debit and credit will become increasingly blurred. This is being driven by European legislation. For example, the Geo-blocking Regulation requires merchants targeting European consumers to offer the same payment methods across borders. And the Interchange Fee Regulation limits the ability to charge consumers directly for more expensive payment methods.
As a result, consumers may increasingly start choosing free, credit-based payment methods – including credit cards and Buy Now, Pay Later solutions – primarily based on rewards, dispute options and added benefits. Meanwhile, merchants face having to absorb rising costs and uncertainty.
Retailers are willing to support a stronger European payments market and European data sovereignty. But if that means losing the principle of immediate settlement while simultaneously paying higher percentage-based fees, resistance will grow.
What makes immediate settlement models so valuable?
Immediate settlement is how cash payments have worked for centuries. The transaction is complete once payment is made.
In immediate settlement models, consumers can only spend money they actually have available. That creates clarity and financial discipline for all parties involved, and also reinforces the principle of trust between merchant and consumer.
If loyalty schemes and dispute mechanisms continuously push consumers toward free credit-based payment models, we risk creating a system that encourages overspending while shifting responsibility toward merchants.
For which types of payment situations can dispute-based models be a good fit?
Dispute-based payment models make sense when consumers are purchasing from manufacturers or sellers outside Europe. In that case, they may reasonably want additional protection and it would be logical to pay extra for that protection.
The existing two-week withdrawal period should already provide sufficient protection when consumers are purchasing from European merchants.
What are the most important steps needed to create a fair European payments market?
If Europe truly wants a functioning single market, we first need a much more transparent analysis of how the costs and revenues of payments are distributed across the ecosystem.
Based on that, policymakers should establish a balanced framework that fairly distributes costs between consumers and merchants.
Payments should be recognized as being part of critical economic infrastructure. That does not justify profit margins of 25% or higher on payment traffic within the financial sector.
How do you see Pay by Bank’s role in the context of existing payment methods?
I see it as a promising complement to the existing payment methods rather than as a replacement for them.
Pay by Bank combines the principle of immediate settlement with the appeal of predictable fixed pricing. That makes it highly relevant in the broader European payments discussion.
What should merchants do today to prepare for these developments?
Consumers who expect every payment option for free, regardless of the underlying costs, are not always helping to create a sustainable payments ecosystem.
Therefore, retailers should reassess the payment methods they offer and critically evaluate whether every payment option still makes commercial sense. If the economics no longer work, merchants should not be afraid to remove expensive payment methods from their checkout.
And to stay ahead of future developments, merchants should repeat this exercise regularly.