Building the API-Driven Future of European Payments

Building the API-Driven Future of European Payments
Speaker: Antoine Leclercq, CEO at Estreem

European payments are entering a new cycle—one where legacy batch architectures, fragmented regulatory landscapes, and increasing resiliency requirements can no longer keep up with the speed, scale, and expectations of modern commerce. As transactions move to real-time, as banks face growing pressure to innovate without compromising sovereignty or security, and as merchants demand smoother, simpler experiences, the underlying payment infrastructure must evolve.

This talk by Antoine Leclercq, CEO at Estreem, explores how an API-driven approach can redefine payment processing in Europe. Not just as a technical upgrade, but as a foundational shift in how issuing and acquiring services are built, consumed, scaled, and secured.

Core Focus Areas:
• Infrastructure Modernization: Moving from legacy batch systems to real-time, resilient API architectures.

• Strategic Agility: How modular issuing and acquiring services allow banks and merchants to scale without security compromises.

• Real-World Use Cases: Instant merchant funding, real-time card lifecycle management, and unified acceptance flows.

• Sovereignty & Competitiveness: Why modernizing core infrastructure is vital for Europe’s financial independence.

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Conference Details:
Conference: apidays Paris 2025, part of FOST (Future of Software Techonologies)
Theme: The APIs meet AI Conference: Innovation, Security, Sovereignty, Sustainability
Date: 9 - 11 December 2025 • CNIT Forest, Paris

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Transcript

1. Building the API -Driven Future of European Payments API Days – 10th December 2025 Speaker: Antoine Leclercq – Estreem CEO
2. The Shift: Payment Digitalization Accelerat ion Payment digitalization no longer concerns the front - end only: it transforms the entire value chain …. 01 • Real-time payment and visibility • Instant card lifecycle • Wallet-based usage • Zero-latency expectations from merchants Building the API-Driven Future of European Payments - Estreem … But our infrastructures were not built for this world 2
3. Four trends are shaping the card payment landscape Across the European market, banks are navigating a landscape shaped by: 02 Steadily increasing transaction volumes In France, cards now represent 62% of all cashless payment volumes Annual report of Observatoire de la Sécurité des Moyens de Paiement (OSMP), 2025 Growing demand for faster settlement and clearer cashflow visibility 88% of merchants consider fast payment processing and ease of cash management to be important Satispay study, France, 2024 A broader ecosystem of digital wallets and embedded payment solutions 1) Standard stabilization Evolving regulatory expectations around resilience, fraud and sovereignty EU Data Act 2023 2026 DSP3 2025 DORA PCI-DSS v31) 2018 2022 PCI-DSS v4 Building the API-Driven Future of European Payments - Estreem 3
4. Many existing payment infrastructures were not designed for digital -first use cases: 03 Long innovation cycles due to legacy complexity Batch-based processes and delayed visibility Dual-message architectures limiting real-time experiences Difficulties scaling across countries and schemes Fragmented systems across issuing, acquiring, and scheme connectivity Technical constraints used to shape business possibilities and customer experience Building the API-Driven Future of European Payments - Estreem 4
5. The Six Structural Challenges 04 Enabling digital payments requires solving: Real-time • Event-driven • API in/ out Interoperability • API-first integration • Ecosystem openness Load & Scalability • Embedded performance • Horizontal scaling Resilience • Fault tolerance • Continuity Security • Tokenization • Secure by design APIs European Sovereignty​ • Sovereign cloud & providers • Compliance by design Building the API-Driven Future of European Payments - Estreem 5
6. A N D O R R A Estreem is building a real -time, API -driven, event -based processing platform designed to support European banks. Key characteristics: • European-owned, governed, running on sovereign cloud infrastructure • Unified platform for issuing and acquiring • Modular and scalable architecture for multi-country and multi-scheme operations • Built for digital experiences: instant lifecycle, real-time visibility, extensibility • Engineered for resilience, with active-active design and risk-driven architecture 05 +17 Billions of transactions in 2029 #1 Processor in France Top 3 in Europe 30% of the French market Our role: enable banks to deliver the next generation of payment experiences Shareholders +400 Employees Building the API-Driven Future of European Payments - Estreem 6
7. Towards an API -Driven Processing Platform 1/2 06 CARDHOLDER MERCHANTS (PoS/ eCom PSP/ Gateway) Issuing processing ISSUER (Bank) ACQUIRER (Bank) SCHEME PAYMENT SYSTEM Cross - cutting services : Fraud •Risk •Compliance •Ledger •Events Legend : Issuer (bank) response Merchant payment request Debit Crédit CARD MANUFACTURERS Order cards and track order Use of API Now Next Later APIs currently in use APIs coming soon APIs on the horizon Next Next Next Later Later Later Later Next Now Now Next Acquiring processing Building the API-Driven Future of European Payments - Estreem 7 Next Next
8. Towards an API -Driven Processing Platform 2/2 Core principals of a next - gen processor 06 An API-driven processor provides capability building blocks, not just transaction routing: • Card lifecycle APIs (issuing, controls, PIN, tokenization) • Real-time event streams for risk, fraud and notifications • Programmable settlement and reconciliation services • Modular onboarding of new schemes and payment methods • Unified integration for banks, merchants, fintechs and partners APIs turn the processor into an innovation platform for the entire ecosystem 1 2 3 4 5 Building the API-Driven Future of European Payments - Estreem 8
9. Estreem answer to real -time needs: APIs + Kafka Example 07 BANK A BANK B Estreem One exposes REST API to its customers 2 Microservice 1 Microservice 2 REST API Kafka event – Push Kafka event – Subscription Kafka Event streaming A real-time microservice platform based on REST API and a Kafka bus for event management 1 API Gateway API API API API API BANK A Customer API Event Customer API Event Estreem One publishes events using a REST API model to: • Simplify integration and reduce technology coupling; • Ensure strong security by leveraging an API Gateway, a well- established and proven approach 3 BANK B API Gateway API Gateway Building the API-Driven Future of European Payments - Estreem 9
10. What a Modern Payment Platform Enables The platform becomes a growth enabler —not just an engine With real-time, APIs, and digital-first processing, banks can: • Launch instantly new digital card experiences • Offer programmable settlement & liquidity features • Integrate new payment methods without rewriting systems • Build multi-country issuing/ acquiring models • Improve authorization quality • Reduce operational incidents and manual interventions API first architecture API developer experience API lifecycle management BUSINESS CHALLENGES To address these challenges, we are implementing : Building the API-Driven Future of European Payments - Estreem 10 08
11. To go further