I so wish I could open a european bank account. I think they reason its not allowed is because they kowtow to us money laundering complaints. wish they would open up freedom accounts or something.

The problem isn't necessarily the branding on the cards. The transaction networks that carry the data from point-of-sale (merchants), to transaction processing facilities, to banks and back, are the problem. That infrastructure is run by Visa, MC, etc.

They also have a defacto cartel, not only due to owning the networks, but by complying with the very complex credit card compliance regulations. Combined with vendor lock-in for merchants and others, this creates a space that makes it obscenely hard for anyone else to join in. Just ask the folks over at Discover about that.