Prediction: Payments Will Evolve From Transactions Into Trust Experiences

By Alexander Scheibel, Riverty

After a decade dominated by convenience, European fintech is entering a new chapter: payments are becoming trust experiences. The companies that will define the next wave won’t be the ones that simply accelerate checkout, they rather will be the ones that deliver clarity, confidence and fairness at every step, way beyond the checkout.

For consumers, trust now matters as much as speed. They want transparency around terms, predictable outcomes and the certainty that they remain in control, especially in moments of friction like returns, refunds or disputes. Payments are shifting from “frictionless” to reassuring, making trust a competitive advantage rather than a hygiene factor.

BNPL 2.0: Perfectly fitted for agentic commerce

As AI-powered agents begin to research, compare and even initiate purchases for consumers, the payment layer must evolve. BNPL is especially well positioned for this shift: it is inherently a trust-aligned method because money leaves the consumer’s account only once they confirm that what they ordered is delivered and of acceptable quality.

The next generation of BNPL will therefore become a key enabler of agentic commerce. It will hinge on confidence design:

• Real-time, intelligent and explainable risk decisions
• Transparent, easy to understand flows
• Consent frameworks that extend to autonomous agents
• A protection layer that follows the consumer across merchants and channels

BNPL moves from being a financing tool to becoming the assurance mechanism for a world where humans and AI agents share purchasing decisions.

Europe’s moment: An engine for trustworthy payments – if political will materialises

Europe has the ingredients to support this change in its very own way: meaningful consumer protections, an innovation base in open banking and a rising focus on a pan European sovereign payment infrastructure such as Wero or the digital Euro. But this potential market leadership will only be realised if Europe creates an equal playground between EU-based players and global platforms.

That requires political will. An “Airbus of Payments” – a coordinated European effort to build scalable, interoperable payment rails, would create the foundation for competitiveness, resilience and independence. And that made in Europe.

Equally crucial is regulatory harmonisation. Fragmentation across member states still dilutes scale and discourages investment and the opportunity for startups in the Fintech sector to scale. A more unified regulatory and supervisory framework would make Europe significantly more attractive for long-term fintech capital while strengthening consumer protection in the process.

The path forward

Riverty sees the next era of fintech shaped by trusted intelligence: payments that are not only smart, but principled. That includes transparent pricing towards merchants and consumers, responsible and fair lending that empowers consumers, rather than taking advantage of them. If Europe backs its innovators with coherent policy and harmonised rules, it can set the global benchmark for ethical, intelligent payments.