• Ideas

  • Dependency on US Big Tech

I was wondering, in the light of the current geopolitical frictions, how much dependent is Bunq on US Big Tech and US Financial Services? ECB chief Christine Lagarde states that we should develop alternatives to Visa and Master Card in Europe. We should also build our tech on a European Tech stack. As a customer of this fine fintech company, I wonder how much we're exposed to the grips of Big Tech and how Bunq expects to mitigate the risk? I know you use Google Pay and Apple Pay for digital payments, so at least that part of your offering depends on Big Tech and you offer Master Cards, so there is also a dependency. Have you looked into GNU Taler already as a privacy friendly payment alternative?

    The question is, which bank in the European Union or else in the western world is not dependent on US financial Business Services. The biggest card brands are VISA and MC and mobile payment is almost only in US hand because it is a lot more convenient than anything else I tried.
    But honestly even with the crazy orange man, I don’t see any reason to not use this infrastructure anymore. But that’s only my personal opinion.

      I agree that every bank in the EU or else is using VISA and Master Card, that gives them enormous sway over the EU. Though like I stated, it's not only the VISA and Master Card, it's also the platforms on which EU banks build their tech: Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. In case of a trade war the US government is able to enforce those companies to shut down access to these platforms for EU companies. And the orange clown in the White House is showing he is willing to use these powers. Though also his predecessor Biden wasn't that friendly to the EU. A recent poll shows more and more Americans are seeing Europeans as advesaries in stead of as allies. (https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2025/03/31/schooled-by-trump-americans-are-learning-to-dislike-their-allies), so also a future US government will be less friendly to us. Which is for me a great reason not to use US infrastructure anymore.

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