Wero is a European mobile payment system that is intended to replace Giropay in Germany, Paylib in France,[1]Payconiq in Belgium[2] and Luxembourg, and iDEAL in the Netherlands. The service was launched on 2 July 2024 by the European Payments Initiative.[3] The service competes with PayPal, credit cards and similar services. It started as a real-time payment system in 2024, and from summer 2025 extended online payment functions were added on a step-by-step basis.
The aim of EPI's project is to achieve greater independence from the market power of American payment service providers. According to the management consultancy Capco, EPI's market entry may come too late for many, but the train has "not yet completely left the station, but is already in motion".[5] The Center for Financial Studies believes that the end of 2021 will be the "last opportunity for Europe to establish a payment system that can keep up with global competition" (especially against US competitors). During 2020 and 2021 several attempts were made to initiate the creation of a European-based payment system that could rival card based payment solutions of Visa and Mastercard.
2022
After 20 banks from Poland, Spain, Germany and Finland had withdrawn from the project in end of 2021, the remaining 13 banks pivoted the project towards a payment solution based on a digital wallet.[6]
EPI announced it wanted to start the "digital wallet" with mobile-to-mobile payments in Belgium, Germany and France. By offering its own app, according to the provider, almost all bank customers in these countries will most likely be able to use Wero. It should become comparable to Twint (Switzerland) and MobilePay (Denmark).
2023
On 25 April, EPI announced that its shareholders confirmed the development (and launch) of the wallet based payment solution.[7] Several European institutions, among them European Central Bank, welcomed the initiative.[8]
On 21 September 2023, EPI selected the name Wero for its upcoming payment service.[9]
In December 2023, EPI launched a pilot operation between German Sparkasse Elbe-Elster and the French Banque Populaire, based on the fully-developed SCT-Inst SEPA payment solution.
On 2 July 2024, Wero was launched in Germany, with two German banks going live with the service.[3] On 30 September 2024, Wero was launched in France.[10] On 19 November 2024, Wero was launched in Belgium.[11] As of November 2024, the service counts 14 million users and 8 million transactions were made.[12]
In December 2024, a first Wero e-commerce payment transaction was performed in a pilot setting.[13] The next countries to follow will be Luxembourg and the Netherlands.[14]
2025
In February 2025, the German branch of Italian payment service provider Nexi announced that it signed a contract with EPI that would allow its merchants to accept Wero for online commerce.[15] In May 2025, Canadian payment service provider Nuvei also announced that its clients would be able to use Wero for e-commerce businesses. [16] French payment service providers Worldline announced that it would enable its merchants to use Wero in online commerce, starting in summer 2025 in Germany.[17] German payment company Unzer announced that Wero would be accessible on its platform UnzerOne.[18]
In June 2025, British fintech company Revolut joined the EPI and would provide Wero to its clients in selected European countries. [19]
In September 2025, EuroPA (European Payments Alliance) and EPI (EPI Company) confirm commitment to expand sovereign pan-European payments with a hub model. Intend is to interconnect their respective solutions through a central technical hub, based on European standards and infrastructure with a hub that will enable over 120 million combined customers of the participating solutions to offer day-to-day, instant cross-border payments across the different use cases.[23]
Product features
P2P Contact list payments
A user can associate a phone number to their bank account, with a maximum of three phone numbers per bank account. A person can make a bank transfer to another person's bank account, using their phone number instead of their IBAN.
P2P Payment request
A user can send a payment request to a person, by selecting the bank account, specifying the requested amount in Euros and selecting a person that should receive the payment request. The person receiving a payment request is notified of an incoming payment request. The person can decline the payment request. The person can also accept the payment request by selecting the bank account and approving the payment. If the person does not respond, a payment request expires after 30 days.
P2P Wero QR codes generation
A user can create a QR code, by selecting the bank account and specifying the requested amount in Euros. A person can make a bank transfer by scanning the QR code, selecting their bank account and approving the transaction.
Future planned features
EPI announced in July 2024 that it will extend Wero's offering to online and mobile shopping payments (in 2025) and then NFC enabled point-of-sale payments (2026). An additional comprehensive range of transaction types is planned to be supported later, including one-off payments, subscriptions, installments, payments upon delivery and reservations. Additionally, value-added services will be incorporated into the solution over time, including responsible "Buy Now, Pay Later" (BNPL) financing, digital identity features and integration of merchant loyalty programmes.[7] To enhance consumer trust, the European Payments Initiative aims to incorporate “state-of-the-art consumer protection” within Wero, including structured mechanisms for pre-dispute resolution, disputes, and chargebacks.[24]
The majority of participating banks in France have launched Wero by the end of 2024, with La Banque postale using the EPI app instead of its own.
Other banks that want to offer the service as of September 2024 are ING (Netherlands) and the payment service providers Worldline (France) and Nexi (Italy). Other banks and service providers are set to follow.[citation needed]
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