As Europe moves towards a more unified digital economy, Wero, the newly launched digital wallet by the European Payments Initiative (EPI), is set to reshape the region’s payments landscape. Designed to provide a secure, seamless, and interoperable payment solution across multiple markets, Wero aims to address the fragmentation that has long characterised European payments.
Already, the first wave of licensed members – including leading fintech payabl. – have integrated Wero, giving merchants access to instant, secure account-to-account payments across Europe.
In an exclusive interview for How Europe Likes to Pay, Martina Weimert, CEO of EPI Company, shares the vision behind Wero, how it meets the needs of both users and merchants, and the roadmap for its expansion.
A year ago, EPI launched Wero, a new digital wallet aimed at unifying Europe’s payment experience. What inspired the development of Wero, and how does it address the needs of both consumers and merchants across Europe?
The European Payments Initiative was founded to create a unified, sovereign European payment solution with a single, all-in-one (integrating progressively all use cases) mobile payment wallet tailored to meet the evolution of the payment industry. With our digital wallet Wero, our goal is to address the diverse needs of consumers, professionals, and merchants across Europe by creating a unified, secure, and convenient solution that works for everyone.
The European payments landscape is highly fragmented, with diverse consumer preferences and local solutions. How does Wero aim to harmonise this complexity while still offering localised benefits?
Wero aims to unify Europe's fragmented payments landscape by providing a standardised infrastructure and single solution for professionals and merchants, requiring only one integration to cover all participating markets instead of having to integrate with the various national solutions. We’re working closely with local banks and acquirers – our shareholders and members – to ensure relevance for their customers and merchants and, of course, compliance with all national and European laws and regulations. Our wallet already supports three markets for the time being (France, Belgium and Germany), and includes local languages so that consumers can enjoy the ease of use and high security they expect. The Netherlands and Luxembourg will follow while discussing further extensions.
Merchants will benefit from competitive transaction costs and simpler cross-border transactions, which will become a reality by the end of 2025 with the launch of the e-commerce payment case. In addition to our plans for e-commerce and PoS payments, we’re developing value-added services to cater to specific market needs and balance our unified, European core with local benefits.
Security and trust are critical for adoption. How does Wero ensure robust protection for its users while delivering the convenience they expect from a digital wallet?
Wero ensures robust protection – including biometric verification in compliance with the eID regulation – for customers thanks to strong authentication capabilities, data encryption, regulatory compliance, and advanced fraud detection. All transactions and data are encrypted end-to-end, adhering to EU financial regulations for high security standards. Our consent model, involving the “four corners” that include the consumer, the merchant, the issuer, and the acquirer, adds multiple layers of security by ensuring each participant consents to and verifies every transaction. Wero offers instant payments using phone numbers and personal QR codes and a user-friendly interface. A powerful combination of security measures and convenience features that makes Wero a reliable and efficient digital wallet solution for European consumers and merchants alike.
Collaboration is key for initiatives like EPI. How has Wero been shaped by partnerships with European banks, fintechs, and other stakeholders to meet the region’s unique challenges and opportunities?
EPI is the story of cooperation and a joint objective to unify the European payment system, to offer to all a sovereign, easy-to-use and empowering payment means across the continent. It is the story of the power of the “we”.
The European Payments Initiative (EPI) brought together most of the major European banks, including BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, ING and more, as well as major acquirers and other stakeholders, to create a unified, European payment solution that addresses our continent’s unique challenges and opportunities.
These partnerships have allowed the creation of Wero, and they enable it to leverage existing payment systems and the technical expertise of our stakeholders to ensure a seamless transition for users. By integrating local payment solutions like Paylib, Payconiq and iDEAL, Wero offers users and merchants a familiar, tested and reliable infrastructure that creates seamless experiences across different countries. – for example, Wero leverages the SEPA Inst regulation, which underpins every Wero transaction, increasing Wero's relevance and interest in the European market. The collaborative approach we’ve taken since the beginning of the project ensures Wero meets and will continue to meet the diverse needs of European consumers and merchants by offering a secure, efficient, and innovative payment solution.
Looking to the future, how do you see Wero transforming Europe’s payments ecosystem, and what milestones should we expect next on the path toward widespread adoption?
In 2024, we’ve made Wero a reality by deploying it with a first use case, person-to-person transfers, in Belgium, France and Germany. We’re looking to launch in the Netherlands and Luxembourg next year, as well as welcoming new banks. At the same time, we are expanding our services to integrate new payment use cases, including payments to small professionals and online e/m-commerce payments in 2025, which will be followed by point-of-sales payments starting in 2026.
Beyond these first payment capabilities, we also aim at creating additional value-added and include more complex payment solutions such as subscription management (for streaming platforms, for instance), consumption-dependent payments and responsible buy now, pay later payments. Our ambition is to offer every payment, everywhere, for all of Europe. It’s a bold ambition and a huge project, but we are excited about making it happen and changing the way Europe pays.
The integration of Wero into Europe’s payments ecosystem is already underway. payabl., one of the first licensed members of the European Payments Initiative, has connected as a direct acquirer participant. This means merchants working with payabl. can now offer customers instant, secure, account-to-account payments via Wero – reducing costs at checkout while meeting growing consumer demand for speed, convenience, and trust.
Learn more about payabl.’s integration with Wero here.