Mobile payments in the Benelux region have followed a different path from the rest of Europe. Rather than the NFC-dominant model that prevailed in the UK and France, Belgium and Luxembourg developed a QR code-based ecosystem that became deeply embedded in how people pay in physical stores, restaurants, and online. Payconiq was founded in Luxembourg in 2015 as a joint initiative of major Benelux banks including ING, KBC, and BNP Paribas Fortis, with the explicit goal of creating a shared mobile payment infrastructure for the region. Its QR code payment app became the standard for Belgian and Luxembourgish mobile payments, used for everything from supermarket purchases to peer-to-peer transfers. Payconiq merged with Bancontact — Belgium's dominant debit card network — in 2018 to form Bancontact Payconiq Company, creating a combined entity that controls a significant share of Belgian consumer payments. The merger reflected the strategic logic that has driven payment consolidation across Europe: scale matters, and national payment systems need sufficient mass to maintain relevance as international players compete for consumer mindshare. For the Belgian and Luxembourgish markets, Payconiq is the local infrastructure that underpins how millions of people pay daily.