How MPE 2026 Delivered a European Reality Check on Payments Innovation

March 2026

Fintech & Payments

Nick Maynard

VP of Research

As part of our regular efforts to connect with the market, the Juniper Research team visited MPE Berlin 2026 last week, and had some great conversations with clients - old and new alike!

As fintech and payments is undergoing such a drastic shift at present, taking the temperature of the market is highly valuable. Whether its agentic commerce, alternative payment methods or stablecoins, the market is set to see significant change.

What is interesting, is to see this from a European perspective. While the temptation is to talk about payments from a global perspective, there are very specific regional markets for payments, with Europe having a unique and comparatively structured market around payments in place. 

Here are a few themes that stood out for us at the show.

Agentic Commerce

Agentic commerce is quickly moving from concept to real-world application, with the potential to reshape how consumers interact and purchase goods and services. However, what was clear was a dose of scepticism from European stakeholders, including merchants and payments ecosystem players. While almost all agreed that agentic commerce will happen eventually, the general consensus was that Europe will take longer to adopt agentic commerce at scale. Trust was seen as a major stumbling block, as well as a general lack of buy in from merchants. 

Of course, agentic commerce will develop at differing rates, across both verticals and geographies, with certain areas riper for disruption. For example, China has already seen a strong level of exploration, and has moved to the daily use phase for some eCommerce users, whereas this feels some way off in the European space.

Ultimately, agentic commerce is coming, but European merchants need to take the time to understand the value for them, and build out their systems to best support AI-powered shopping. European merchants cannot ignore wider trends, and must develop their AI capabilities as a priority.

Stablecoins and the Digital Euro

Understandably, stablecoins are high on the agenda wherever you look within payments. Stablecoins will continue to gain traction for faster, more efficient cross-border payments. However, there is a European perspective on this – with the vast majority of stablecoins being USD denominated, there is a challenge in terms of the sovereignty of payments. While Euro-denominated stablecoins are a trend, their collective market cap is an order of magnitude lower than Tether; the most common USD stablecoin. As such, there will be a European nervousness around over reliance on stablecoins.

On this note then, it was interesting to see that there was enthusiasm for the upcoming Digital Euro, which is being closely watched by merchants. The Digital Euro is still in development, but if fully realised, could transform the payments landscape within the EU.

Along the same sovereignty lines, there was also enthusiasm for Wero, which is scaling across Europe, and is challenging reliance on Mastercard and Visa. Clearly, scaling new payment types is of vital importance within Europe, and is being supported by merchants and payments vendors alike.

Payment Orchestration

Another key trend we witnessed was how payment orchestration is becoming essential for scaling globally, while optimising performance and cost. Merchants face a complex task – they need to serve customers effectively, whilst managing fraud, keeping costs low, and automating as much as possible. This is a difficult balance, and is leading to advanced payments orchestration.

Multiple vendors brought relevant capabilities, and AI was an increasing feature of these capabilities. Merchants are moving towards multi-gateway capabilities; increasing resiliency and enabling expansion internationally. As costs inescapably rise in some areas for merchants, orchestration is an area that will see increasing attention.

The Juniper Research View

Clearly, Europe is going its own way with payments. This was very clear from the event, and from our observations on the European market for a while. Merchants are trying to navigate rapidly changing payment methods, and new developments such as agentic commerce, whilst maintaining profitability. For regulators, payments sovereignty is top of mind, which will reshape the way payments are made. All in all, Europe is a highly active market, with many key trends to watch. 

Nick Maynard is VP of Fintech Market Research at Juniper Research, where he leads analysis on key trends shaping the future of finance. With deep expertise across digital payments and commerce, his recent work includes reports on Instant Payments, eCommerce Payments, and Chargeback Management; helping stakeholders stay ahead in a rapidly evolving market.