Wero (payment)
In a world increasingly dominated by a few global tech giants, Europe is making a bold move to reclaim its digital payment landscape. Wero is a groundbreaking new mobile payment system, designed to unify and modernize how millions of Europeans send and receive money. It represents a strategic effort to foster greater financial independence and create a seamless, home-grown alternative in the digital economy. Wero is Europe's ambitious initiative to create a unified, secure mobile payment system across the continent. It aims to replace several national payment solutions, offering a consistent and integrated experience for users and businesses alike. Despite initial challenges, Wero has rapidly expanded its user base and features, signaling a significant shift in the European payment ecosystem.
AI Summary
In a world increasingly dominated by a few global tech giants, Europe is making a bold move to reclaim its digital payment landscape. Wero is a groundbreaking new mobile payment system, designed to unify and modernize how millions of Europeans send and receive money. It represents a strategic effort to foster greater financial independence and create a seamless, home-grown alternative in the digital economy.
- Wero is Europe's ambitious initiative to create a unified, secure mobile payment system across the continent.
- It aims to replace several national payment solutions, offering a consistent and integrated experience for users and businesses alike.
- Despite initial challenges, Wero has rapidly expanded its user base and features, signaling a significant shift in the European payment ecosystem.
The European Answer to Digital Payments
Imagine a world where paying someone in another European country is as simple as sending a text. That's the vision behind Wero, a new mobile payment system launched by the European Payments Initiative, or EPI. It's designed to bring a truly unified digital wallet experience to the continent.
Wero isn't just another payment app—it's set to replace several well-known national services, including Giropay in Germany, Paylib in France, Payconiq in Belgium and Luxembourg, and iDEAL in the Netherlands. This consolidation aims to simplify the European payment landscape significantly.
The name 'Wero' itself is a clever blend of ideas. It's a portmanteau of the English 'we' and 'Euro,' symbolizing collective European identity. But it also draws from the Italian word 'vero,' meaning 'true' — perhaps hinting at a true European payment solution.
A Strategic Imperative
At its heart, Wero is a strategic move for Europe to assert greater independence from the dominance of American payment giants like PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard. European leaders and financial institutions have long sought a robust, home-grown alternative.
For years, experts warned that Europe was running out of time to establish its own competitive payment system. The sentiment was clear: without a unified solution, Europe would remain reliant on external providers, potentially hindering innovation and financial sovereignty.
The Road to Launch: Challenges and Pivots
Building such an ambitious system wasn't without its hurdles. In late 2021, several banks from countries like Poland, Spain, and Finland withdrew from the initial project, leading to a crucial re-evaluation.
The remaining 13 core banks pivoted their strategy, refocusing the project entirely around a 'digital wallet' concept. This shift aimed to create a more streamlined, user-friendly experience centered on mobile devices.
In 2022, EPI announced plans to kick off the digital wallet with mobile-to-mobile payments in Belgium, Germany, and France. The goal was to make Wero comparable to successful national systems like Switzerland's Twint or Denmark's MobilePay.
By April 2023, shareholders confirmed the development and launch of the wallet-based payment solution, a decision warmly welcomed by several European institutions, including the European Central Bank.
Later that year, in September 2023, the name 'Wero' was officially selected, marking another key step towards the public launch. It was a tangible sign that the project was moving forward rapidly.
A crucial pilot operation was launched in December 2023, connecting Germany's Sparkasse Elbe-Elster with France's Banque Populaire. This test utilized a fully developed, instant payment solution based on European standards, proving the system's core functionality.
Major Milestones: 2024 and Beyond
The moment of truth arrived on July 2, 2024, when Wero officially launched in Germany with two major banks going live. This was quickly followed by launches in France on September 30, and Belgium on November 19.
The adoption has been swift: by November 2024, Wero already boasted 14 million users and had processed an impressive 8 million transactions. In December, the first Wero e-commerce payment transaction was successfully piloted, paving the way for online shopping.
Looking ahead, Wero is set to expand into Luxembourg and the Netherlands, further solidifying its presence across the Eurozone. This rapid rollout underscores the momentum behind the project.
Building the Ecosystem: Banks and Merchants
The strength of any payment system lies in its network. Major payment service providers, or 'acquiring banks,' quickly joined Wero. Companies like Nexi Germany, Nuvei, Worldline, and Unzer committed to enabling their merchants to accept Wero for online commerce starting in 2025.
On the 'issuing' side, more banks and fintechs are signing on to offer Wero to their customers. British fintech Revolut joined in June 2025, followed by five Luxembourgish banks and five Belgian banks, broadening Wero's reach significantly.
Even major neobanks like Germany's N26 are integrating Wero into their services, aiming to make it available to millions of their clients across Germany, France, and the Netherlands by mid-2026. This growing support is critical for Wero's widespread adoption.
Wero's Product Features
One of Wero's core features is simple peer-to-peer (P2P) payments. Users can link their phone number to their bank account—up to three numbers per account—allowing them to send money to friends or family using just a phone number, no complex IBAN required.
For even easier transactions, Wero allows users to generate dynamic QR codes. If you're splitting a bill or collecting money, you can create a QR code with a specified amount, which others can simply scan to make an instant bank transfer.
Need to request money? Wero has a 'payment request' feature. You can send a request to another person, specifying the amount. They'll receive a notification and can easily accept or decline it. If no action is taken, the request conveniently expires after 30 days.
For businesses, there's 'Wero-PRO.' This enhanced payment request comes with features like attaching PDF invoices, adding accounting references, and scheduling automatic reminders. Businesses are also clearly labeled 'PRO' in contact lists, building trust.
Online shopping is also becoming seamless with Wero. Customers can simply scan a QR code displayed on a retailer's payment page to confirm a one-time payment. The retailer receives instant confirmation, making checkout quick and secure.
For an even smoother experience, Wero offers a 'Wallet ID.' This unique token, stored on the retailer's platform (not on your device), allows for enhanced recurring purchases. Instead of scanning a QR code, you might just get a pop-up notification on your smartphone to approve a purchase.
The Future: Expanding Horizons
Wero's ambition extends far beyond its initial offerings. By 2026, EPI plans to roll out NFC-enabled point-of-sale payments, allowing you to pay in physical stores with a tap of your phone. A comprehensive range of transaction types is also on the horizon.
Future features include support for subscriptions, installments, payments upon delivery, and reservations. Wero also aims to integrate value-added services like 'Buy Now, Pay Later' (BNPL) financing, digital identity verification, and merchant loyalty programs.
Consumer trust is paramount. Wero will incorporate strong protections, including structured mechanisms for resolving disputes and managing chargebacks, ensuring users feel secure in their digital transactions.
A significant development for wider European integration is the commitment between EuroPA and EPI to create a central technical hub. This hub will interconnect their respective payment solutions, enabling over 120 million combined customers to make instant cross-border payments across various use cases by 2026.
The transition from existing national systems is also in full swing. In January 2026, the Netherlands will begin migrating from iDEAL to Wero through a co-branding phase, with Austrian banks also announcing their support for future integration.
By February 2026, Wero's registered user base soared past 50 million, a testament to its growing appeal and the strategic vision of a truly independent, unified European digital payment system.
Article
Wero (payment)
Wero is a European mobile payment system that is intended to replace Giropay in Germany, Paylib in France, Payconiq in Belgium and Luxembourg, and iDEAL in the Netherlands. The service was launched on 2 July 2024 by the European Payments Initiative. The service competes with PayPal, credit cards and similar services. It started as a real-time payment system in 2024, and from late 2025 extended online payment functions were added on a step-by-step basis.
The name is a portmanteau made up of the English personal pronoun we and the name of the European Union's common currency, the Euro, but is also based on the Italian word vero, meaning true.
History
Background EPI project
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". 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 America's 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.
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. Several European institutions, among them European Central Bank, welcomed the initiative.
On 21 September 2023, EPI selected the name Wero for its upcoming payment service.
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.
2024
Advertisement board in Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof promoting Wero and logos of supported banks
On 2 July 2024, Wero was launched in Germany, with two German banks going live with the service. On 30 September 2024, Wero was launched in France. On 19 November 2024, Wero was launched in Belgium. As of November 2024, the service counts 14 million users and 8 million transactions were made.
In December 2024, a first Wero e-commerce payment transaction was performed in a pilot setting. The next countries to follow will be Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
2025
Acquiring banks In February 2025, Nexi Germany GmbH announced that it signed a contract with EPI that would allow its merchants to accept Wero for online commerce. In May 2025, Canadian payment service provider Nuvei also announced that its clients would be able to use Wero for e-commerce businesses. French payment service providers Worldline announced that it would enable its merchants to use Wero in online commerce, starting in summer 2025 in Germany. German payment company Unzer announced that Wero would be accessible on its platform UnzerOne.
Issuing banks In June 2025, British fintech company Revolut joined the EPI and would provide Wero to its clients in selected European countries. In mid-June 2025, five Luxembourgish banks (Banque Internationale à Luxembourg, Banque Raiffeisen, Post Luxembourg, BGL BNP Paribas and Spuerkeess) joined the European Payments Initiative (EPI) to enable their clients to use Wero, In July 2025, five Belgian banks (Argenta, Bank van Breda, Beobank, Crelan and vdk bank) also joined the European Payments Initiative (EPI) in order to enable their customers to use Wero. In December 2025, German fintech and neobank N26 signed an agreement with EPI in order to integrate Wero as a payment option in its services, aiming for making Wero available for its clients in Germany, France and the Netherlands in the second half of 2026.
Product offering In September 2025, EuroPA and EPI confirmed commitment to expand sovereign pan-European payments with a hub model. The intent 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. On November 4, the first online retailer started offering Wero as a payment method.
2026
In January 2026, the migration from iDEAL to Wero in the Netherlands begins with a co-branding phase. Furthermore the Austrian company Payment Services Austria GmbH (PSA) announces its support for Wero. PSA is a key service provider for major banks in Austria. The EPI states that Austria will join Wero in the near future.
In February 2026 EuroPA and EPI signed a Memorandum of Understanding. They plan to roll out cross-system p2p payments in 2026. Cross-system e-commerce and point-of-sale payments are planned for 2027. Also in February 2026, EPI announced that the number of registered users has exceeded 50 million.
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 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.
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.
P2Pro Payment request
A business user can send a Wero-PRO payment request to a person, with additional features compared to a regular P2P Payment request: 1) A invoice in PDF format can be attached to the payment request, 2) an additional reference for accounting purposes can be added to a payment request, 3) an automatic reminder after 3, 7, 14 or 28 days can be scheduled to be sent to non paid payment requests, 4) the business user is displayed with the label "PRO" in the contact lists of other Wero users.
e-commerce / m-commerce payment
One time payment An online retailer can let its customer pay via Wero. After selecting Wero as the payment method, the customer can scan the QR code displayed on the payment page and confirm the payment. The online retailer is notified about the confirmation.
Wallet ID The online retailer is also provided a unique token for that customer to be stored in the account of the customer at the online retailers platform, so it can offer an enhanced user experience at the next purchase. The online retailer can trigger a pop-up notification on the customers smart phone, instead of displaying a QR code. This works with a token on the online retailers platform and not with a cookie on the customers device to enable it regardless of the device a customer is using.
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. To enhance consumer trust, the European Payments Initiative will incorporate strong consumer protection within Wero, including structured mechanisms for pre-dispute resolution, disputes, and chargebacks.
Current supporting banks
Wero (payment)
<table><thead><tr><th>Country</th><th>Bank Name</th><th>Begin of support</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Belgium</td><td>Argenta</td><td>1 January 2026</td></tr><tr><td>Bank Van Breda</td><td>1 January 2026</td></tr><tr><td>Belfius</td><td>26 September 2024</td></tr><tr><td>Beobank</td><td>1 January 2026</td></tr><tr><td>BNP Paribas Fortis (Fintro, Hello Bank! Belgium)</td><td>6 November 2024</td></tr><tr><td>Crelan</td><td>1 January 2026</td></tr><tr><td>ING Belgium</td><td>19 November 2024</td></tr><tr><td>KBC (CBC, KBC Brussels)</td><td>26 July 2024</td></tr><tr><td>Revolut</td><td>1 July 2025</td></tr><tr><td>vdk bank</td><td>1 January 2026</td></tr><tr><td>France</td><td>BNP Paribas</td><td>24 October 2024</td></tr><tr><td>CIC</td><td>1 November 2024</td></tr><tr><td>Crédit Agricole</td><td>26 September 2024</td></tr><tr><td>Crédit Lyonnais</td><td>14 February 2025</td></tr><tr><td>Crédit Mutuel</td><td>6 November 2024</td></tr><tr><td>BPCE Group (Groupe Caisse d'Épargne, Groupe Banque Populaire)</td><td>2 October 2024</td></tr><tr><td>Fortuneo</td><td>22 October 2025</td></tr><tr><td>Hello bank!</td><td>2 October 2024</td></tr><tr><td>La Banque Postale</td><td>28 October 2024</td></tr><tr><td>Revolut</td><td>1 July 2025</td></tr><tr><td>Société Générale</td><td>24 October 2024</td></tr><tr><td>Germany</td><td>BBBank</td><td>30 September 2024</td></tr><tr><td>Comdirect</td><td>tbd</td></tr><tr><td>Commerzbank</td><td>tbd</td></tr><tr><td>Deutsche Bank</td><td>15 December 2025</td></tr><tr><td>GLS Bank</td><td>16 July 2025</td></tr><tr><td>ING</td><td>21 August 2025</td></tr><tr><td>N26</td><td>1 July 2026</td></tr><tr><td>Postbank</td><td>31 October 2024</td></tr><tr><td>PSD Bank</td><td>30 September 2024</td></tr><tr><td>Revolut</td><td>1 July 2025</td></tr><tr><td>Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe</td><td>2 July 2024</td></tr><tr><td>Targobank</td><td>tbd</td></tr><tr><td>Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken (DZ Bank, Sparda-Bank)</td><td>2 July 2024</td></tr><tr><td>Luxembourg</td><td>Banque Internationale à Luxembourg</td><td>1 June 2026</td></tr><tr><td>Banque Raiffeisen</td><td>1 June 2026</td></tr><tr><td>Post Luxembourg</td><td>1 June 2026</td></tr><tr><td>BGL BNP Paribas</td><td>1 June 2026</td></tr><tr><td>Spuerkeess</td><td>1 June 2026</td></tr></tbody></table>
Other countries
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). Bunq (Netherlands) also aims to replace its current instant payment system IDeal with Wero by the end of 2027 . Other banks and service providers are set to follow.