Fuel retail payments have run on closed loops for decades. Fuel cards, fleet card programmes and branded apps keep payments inside a defined network, and the model still carries real weight. Our research into closed-loop payments in Europe found more than 1,500 firms in over 30 countries operating under payment exemptions, with fuel and mobility providers such as DKV Mobility, WEX and Telepass among the most prominent.

That closed-loop model is now under pressure from three directions: regulation, EV charging and new payment methods. Each shift lands on the same forecourt infrastructure: dispensers, EV chargers, point-of-sale (POS) systems, payment terminals and back-office hosts. Without shared standards, every change becomes a bespoke integration. That is why standards will set the pace, and why they are the focus of the IFSF Annual Conference 2026, themed "Intelligence in Motion: Standards Shaping Tomorrow's Mobility Experience".

Each of the three shifts below is already in motion, with key deadlines falling in 2027. Together, they push fuel card and forecourt payment programmes towards hybrid models: a closed network for control and loyalty, combined with open-loop acceptance wherever drivers expect it.

1. PSD3 and fuel cards: the limited network exclusion is narrowing

The final texts of the Third Payment Services Directive (PSD3) and the Payment Services Regulation (PSR), agreed in April 2026, keep the limited network exclusion that most closed-loop fuel card programmes rely on. They also clarify it, including how the location and number of acceptance points are assessed. Fuel card and mobility programmes that have grown across borders and spending categories will need to check whether they still qualify.

2. EV charging payments: AFIR brings open loop to the forecourt

Under the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), public fast chargers of 50 kW and above must accept ad hoc card payment, with no subscription or app required. Older fast chargers along the EU's core road network (TEN-T) must be retrofitted by 1 January 2027. In practice, a forecourt with fast chargers becomes an open-loop acceptance point. Fleet card issuers are responding with hybrid products: in January 2026, WEX launched a single closed-loop card covering fuel and public EV charging in the US.

3. Account-to-account payments: Wero reaches the point of sale

Wero, the account-to-account (A2A) payment wallet from the European Payments Initiative (EPI), took its first in-store steps in Belgium in September 2026, and iDEAL in the Netherlands is set to migrate to Wero by 2027. For fuel retailers, each new payment method is another integration at the site, and another reason to build on shared standards rather than one-off connections.

Open loop or closed loop: what fuel retailers should decide now

Payments cannot be separated from mobility. For fuel retailers, charge point operators and fleet card issuers, the question is not whether to open up, but how: which parts of the closed loop to keep, which standards to adopt, and where to build their own differentiation. Standards bodies are moving too. IFSF publishes standard APIs for closed-loop and mobile payments and works with the EVRoaming Foundation on EV charging, and in September it announced that it and Conexxus will develop standards independently.  

These decisions are being made now, but the forecourt of 2030 will add another layer. As EV charging lengthens the stop, and more of the visit moves onto screens, a growing share of transactions may be initiated not by the driver but by software acting on their behalf. The rails, rules and certification stay the same. What changes is who, or what, the forecourt is talking to. That question is at the centre of Bas van Donselaar's keynote in Alicante.

Meet PaymentGenes Consultancy at IFSF 2026 in Alicante

Bas van Donselaar, Managing Partner and Practice Lead for Mobility at PaymentGenes Consultancy, will join a panel at the IFSF Annual Conference 2026 at the Meliá Alicante on 4 and 5 November. If you are attending and want to discuss fuel retail or EV charging payment strategy, contact Bas to arrange a meeting. You can also read more about our mobility payments consulting.

Agentic commerce at the forecourt: what fuel retail payments look like in 2030

Picture a driver in 2030. The car has already chosen the charging stop, compared prices and booked the session. The fuel retailer's app has reordered the usual coffee before the driver unbuckles. Nobody looks at the price sign, the pump screen or the loyalty prompt on the terminal. A software agent did the shopping, and the payment happened between machines.

This is agentic commerce: AI agents that search, choose and pay on a consumer's behalf. In his keynote, "Agentic Commerce: Payments and commerce trends shaping forecourt payments in 2030", Bas will look at what it means for fuel retailers, charge point operators and the payment providers that serve them.

Two shifts set the stage. EV charging stretches a five-minute fuel stop into twenty minutes or more, turning the forecourt into a place for coffee, groceries or half an hour of work. And the visit is moving onto screens: drivers arrive having picked the site and seen the price, and increasingly expect to start and finish the transaction without touching anything on site.

When an agent selects the site and initiates the payment, the tools forecourts have long relied on to reach the customer are talking to someone who is no longer looking. The payment itself still has to clear the same rails, meet the same rules and be certified the same way. The keynote asks what that means for how forecourts compete for customers, and for the payment stack behind them.