Payments Association acquires its European sister body
The Payments Association acquired its Luxembourg sister after a unanimous vote. The combined count is more than 350 organisations. No price was disclosed.
The Payments Association has acquired its European sister, and the membership figure does not split. On October 1, 2026 the London trade body said it had acquired The Payments Association EU (TPA EU) after a unanimous vote by that association’s members, putting the combined network at more than 350 member organisations. Finextra published the statement unedited, and The Paypers reported the same deal the same day, adding that financial terms were not disclosed. Having followed them as sisters, the gap is the point: General Manager Thibault de Barsy puts the Luxembourg community at more than 80 payments organisations, and neither report gives a UK-only count or any overlap.
A combined “more than 350” can be new reach, shared members counted twice, or both. The statement does not say which. It does say the European operation stays in Luxembourg under de Barsy, and that Chairman Anders la Cour keeps a role with members. Chief Executive Emma Banymandhub said, in that statement: “Crucially, this is not about running Europe from the UK.”
What was agreed, and what was left out
The Payments Association called the deal the first major step in an international footprint beyond the UK. The wider community, it said, includes Amazon, BNP Paribas and Bytedance, plus banks, fintechs and payment providers. The capital behind it is Nineteen Group’s 2025 investment. Alison Jackson, that group’s chief executive, said “this acquisition is a significant first step in delivering against that ambition.” Finextra spells her Alison Jackson. Finopotamus’s posting of the same wire spells Allison. The London site would not load, so the original page could not settle the spelling.
Who has responded
Neither Finextra nor The Paypers records a reply from a rival trade body, and Finextra’s page had no comments. Amazon, BNP Paribas and Bytedance are named as brands in the wider community, not as speakers on the deal. The only member reaction either report prints is the unanimous vote of The Payments Association EU’s members.
The EU website is clearer than that silence. On October 2, 2026, The Payments Association EU’s homepage still presented its own club. Payments Tomorrow remained listed for October 15, 2026 at the Hotel Pullman Paris Tour Eiffel, a regulator working group for October 23, 2026, and a block labelled “TPA UK events”. The page did not mention an acquisition.
What the leaders said
“Our ambition is to improve payments globally, not only in the UK, and this acquisition is the first tangible step towards the international footprint we have set out to build.”
Emma Banymandhub, chief executive of The Payments Association, said that in the statement Finextra carried. She added that de Barsy and his team “will continue to lead TPA EU from the European Union, with the needs of European members firmly at the heart of what they do.”
De Barsy said: “From our base in Luxembourg, we have built a vibrant community of more than 80 payments organisations with its own identity and a deep understanding of the European market. That local focus will remain.” Anders la Cour, the EU chairman, said the body “retains its European leadership and focus but now has the scale and backing of a much larger organisation behind it.”
Why operators should care
This is a membership platform changing its perimeter, not a processor buying a gateway. The statement says UK practice — advocacy, policy engagement, member programmes and commercial opportunities — will be adapted for the EU. The example is its work during the UK’s mandatory Authorised Push Payment fraud reimbursement regime.
Firms already collect UK and EU permissions one licence at a time, from Brite Payments’ UK Pay by Bank opening after a Financial Conduct Authority licence to Ryft’s bid for a Malta licence. A London policy team and a Luxembourg general manager help only if the voices stay distinct. The UK Payments Delivery Company is a separate public payments vehicle: a larger trade body is not the national infrastructure. The release promises more introductions across the Channel. It does not say whether a firm that already pays both bodies will pay once, or whether Luxembourg working-group seats stay local.
What happens next
The test is the diary. If de Barsy’s team hosts Payments Tomorrow in Paris on October 15 as a European conference, Banymandhub’s line about not running Europe from the UK has a public proof. If Paris becomes a stop on the London events circuit, the unanimous vote bought a rebrand. Further markets are promised and not named: The Paypers noted that no country and no timeline came with that sentence. Until a second deal appears, the verified step is a Luxembourg association of more than 80 organisations, on its general manager’s count, inside a network the buyer calls more than 350. Further coverage is on the fintech desk.
Reporting by Rick Steves. Filed 2 October 2026, 17:37 GMT.
Senior Reporter, Regulation and Fintech
Rick Steves has seen business and economics through many lenses. He joined the financial services industry in 2009, and has been a financial journalist since 2011.
