This is because the vast majority of electronic transactions in the eurozone go through the American networks Visa, Mastercard and American Express. If these networks were to be “shut down” by political order, card payments in Europe would be paralyzed. The eurozone has never managed to create a common European payments network, while European banks have benefited from the high commissions of the American networks.
On August 21, Nicolas Guillou’s phone practically “went dead.” He couldn’t book an Uber, a train ticket, or make online purchases. His credit cards were blocked, leaving him unable to pay at supermarkets, restaurants, or access his bank account. Expedia even refused to book a hotel in France. Guillou and four other judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague were “guilty” of authorizing an arrest warrant for war crimes against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
For this decision, the Donald Trump administration imposed sanctions, prohibiting any American company, or one with interests in the US, from providing any service to them. The same happened in July 2025 with the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, who invited the court to investigate companies and executives suspected of being complicit in the crimes committed in Gaza. PayPal blocked payments that contained her name in the description. Today, Albanese cannot even open an account in Italian banks, for fear of American sanctions.
FORCED DISTRICT
This is because the vast majority of electronic transactions in the eurozone go through the American networks Visa, Mastercard and American Express. If these networks were to be “shut down” by political order, card payments in Europe would be paralyzed. The eurozone has never managed to create a common European payment network, while European banks have benefited from the high commissions of the American networks. In practice, American sanctions are tantamount to a “financial death sentence”.
DOLLAR EMPIRE
The US financial supremacy is even stronger than its military one. According to Federal Reserve data, dollar assets held outside the US amount to about $70 trillion and support about a third of the US public debt. The dollar accounts for 58% of the foreign exchange reserves of central banks in the world, compared to 20% for the euro.
In global trade, about 50% of international payments are made in dollars. In international exports, 96% of invoices in the Americas, 74% in Asia-Pacific and 79% in the rest of the world are in dollars. This forces companies and banks to have dollar accounts and, consequently, to be subject to the American banking system, where every transaction is monitored by US authorities.
WEAPONS OF PRESSURE AND BLACKMAIL
Exclusion from the dollar circuit can destroy a bank or company. The case of the Latvian bank ABLV in 2018, which collapsed after the threat of sanctions, is a typical example. Even large European banks – Unicredit, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Commerzbank – have paid around $18 billion in fines between 2010 and 2020 for dollar payments to countries under US embargo, although not under EU sanctions.
BREAKING SIGN
China is trying to reduce its dependence on the dollar, and by 2025 about 40% of its trade was conducted in yuan, but global confidence remains limited. In Europe, the European Central Bank is accelerating its digital euro project, to reduce dependence on US card networks and give financial access even to individuals sanctioned by the US.
According to ECB President Christine Lagarde, the euro can become a real alternative to the dollar only if the EU strengthens its common defense, increases its common debt and expands its trading influence. Recent free trade agreements with India and the Mercosur countries are steps in this direction. But without a single capital market and without political unity, Europe will continue to feed the financial power of the United States, a process that Washington, critics say, is trying to curb by any means necessary.