European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has urged the EU to reduce its reliance on U.S. and Chinese payment platforms like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Alipay, advocating for a European digital payment system to ensure financial sovereignty. She described this effort as a "march to independence" and hinted at a potential launch of a CBDC by October. Her remarks came during talks on the Capital Markets Union, which aims to unify EU capital markets and could add up to 3 trillion euros annually to the economy. Source: The Defiant