Wero (payment)

Last updated
wero
Wero logo.svg
Type of site
Mobile payment
Area served West Europe
URL wero-wallet.eu
Launched2024
Native client(s) on iOS, Android

Wero is a European mobile payment system intended to replace Giropay in Germany, Paylib in France and to complement Payconiq in Belgium. [1] The service was launched on 2 July 2024 by the European Payments Initiative. [2] The service has the goal to being a competitor for PayPal and similar services, but from the beginning as a real-time payment system and later with extended online payment function.

Contents

The name is a portmanteau made up of the English personal pronoun we and the European's common currency's name Euro, but is also based on the Italian vero (true). [3]

Background

Giropay had a market share of 0.4 percent in 2023 and is no longer expected to be profitable due to high fixed costs. It was decided to discontinue the payment service together with the provider Paydirekt at the end of 2024 and to gradually build up the new payment service in several stages.

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, Wero's market entry may come too late for many, but the train has "not yet completely left the station, but is already in motion." 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).

Planned functions

Wero will initially enable person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-professional (P2Pro) payments, followed by online and mobile shopping payments and then point-of-sale payments. A comprehensive range of transaction types will be supported, 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. [4]

One flaw of the old payment service was the complicated and time-consuming setup for customers and merchants alike. Wero is supposed to be linked to the user's current account and can be used immediately without setup.

EPI, to which 16 of the original 32 financial service providers still belong, launched a pilot operation between Sparkasse Elbe-Elster and the French Banque Populaire in December 2023 based on the fully developed SCT-Inst SEPA payment solution. Paydirekt accounts are to be terminated at the end of 2024.

EPI wants to start the "digital wallet" wero with mobile-to-mobile payments in Belgium, Germany and France and offer its own app so that, according to the provider, almost all bank customers in these countries will most likely be able to use wero. It should be comparable to Twint (Switzerland) and MobilePay (Denmark).

In Germany, Sparkassen, Postbank, Deutsche Bank and ING want to make a start. EPI member banks also want to implement the services in their own apps based on SEPA and on the basis of the mobile phone numbers registered with the banks, including Deutsche Bank, DZ Bank and the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe.

In the Netherlands, the central bank has made success a condition for the migration of iDEAL to the European platform.

By mid-2025, payment in online stores should be possible and thus compete with PayPal and credit cards. The final step planned is the integration of stationary payment at the checkout.

Current supported banks

Caption
Bank nameCountryBegin of support
Belfius Belgium
BNP Paribas France2024-10-24 [5]
Groupe BPCE France2024-10-02 [5]
Crédit Agricole France2024-09-26 [5]
Crédit Mutuel France2024-11-06 [5]
KBC (CBC, KBC Brussels) Belgium2024-07-02 [6]
La Banque Postale France2024-10-28 [5]
Postbank Germany2024-10-31 [7]
Deutsche Bank GermanyMid 2025 [8]
Hello Bank! France2024-10-02
PSD Bank Germany2024-09-30 [9]
Société Générale France2024-10-24 [5]
Sparda-Bank Germany
Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe Germany2024-07-02
Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken Germany2024-07-02

Other countries

Other banks that want to offer the service are Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Postbank (Germany), BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Groupe Banque Populaire and Worldline (France), ING (Netherlands) and Nexi (Italy). Further banks are to follow.[ citation needed ]

See also

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References

  1. TestAchats (2024-09-12). "Wero : nouveau système de paiement lancé en Belgique". Testachats (in French). Retrieved 2024-09-15.
  2. "EPI launches wero". European Payments Initiative. 2024. Archived from the original on 2 July 2024.
  3. "Neuer europäischer Zahlungsdienst soll "Wero" heißen". 7 September 2023.
  4. "EPI Company announces acquisitions, additional shareholders and the coming launch of its new instant payment solution - Société Générale". www.societegenerale.com. 2023-04-25. Retrieved 2024-09-21.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "EPI lance Wero, son portefeuille de paiement numérique européen en France".
  6. Flandern, VRT Nachrichten-Aktuelles aus (2024-07-29). "Neues europäisches digitales Zahlungssystem auch bald in Belgien aktiviert". vrtnws.be (in German). Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  7. Reinhardt, Justus (2024-10-01). "EPI – Postbank startet Wero Ende Oktober". DER PLATOW Brief (in German). Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  8. Reinhardt, Justus (2024-10-01). "EPI – Postbank startet Wero Ende Oktober". DER PLATOW Brief (in German). Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  9. "Wero". www.psd-rheinneckarsaar.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-11-01.