American payment giants Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Apple and Google Pay are facing a new rival in Europe: Wero is already available to some consumers in Germany and in Belgium at the end of July. How does it work and what are its features?
Wero is the result of years of work the European Payments Initiative (EPI), a network of 16 European banks and financial institutions created in 2021 to offer a unique service of digital payment to all businesses and citizens.
Based on systems such as the existing Payconiq and iDEAL, The digital wallet allows customers to transfer money with just a phone number as we do in Spain with Bizum, without the need for an IBAN, with the novelty of gradually offering them the option of sending money to other users in Europe.
“One of the main advantages of Wero – in addition to the Possibility of making international payments– is the speed “with which you can easily send and receive money,” explains a spokesperson for Belgian bank KBC, which will introduce the 24/7 system to its customers free of charge from the end of July.
The initiative responds not only to the need for Making digital payments easier and more instantaneous in the eurozone (which comprises 20 of the 27 EU member states), but above all to the bloc’s long-standing desire for strategic autonomy in financial services. To date, there is no pan-European solution for digital payments.
Wero arrives to cover a European need
Thirteen of the 20 eurozone countries lack a national card system and rely on international providers, which handle 64% of all electronically initiated card transactions in the eurozone, according to calculations by the European Central Bank.
“The launch of a fully European payment service “This has great potential to diversify banking and payment systems, which can benefit consumers and the financially excluded,” a spokesman for the campaign organisation Positive Money told Euronews in Brussels.
However, the organization also stresses that PPE remains a private initiative launched by private banking entities and should not be seen as a substitute for public money, as The European Central Bank’s future digital euroconceived as an alternative means of payment that can be used freely throughout the eurozone.
The The European Consumers’ Organisation (BEUC) has also welcomed the initiativealthough he stresses that there is still work to be done to make it accessible to all consumers.
“For example, by providing payment cards, ensuring consumer safety when shopping online by offering a chargeback mechanism and and can be used in all EU countries“or at least the eurozone,” Anna Martin, head of financial services policy, told Euronews.
How Wero will grow in the future: New services
In 2025 and 2026, Wero’s services will be expanded with new functions, such as the possibility of Pay merchants online and on invoices via QR codes and other features like buy now, pay later.
“We are starting with person to person transactions“But Wero’s goal is to offer all types of payments through a single wallet, combining the simplicity, immediacy and security of banks,” said Martina Weimert, Managing Director of EPI, following the launch of Wero in Germany.
The 16 banks and financial institutions from EPI that will integrate this service into their banking applications in the second half of the year:
- ABN Amro
- Belfius
- Mutual Credit
- BNP Paribas
- BPCE Group
- Agricultural Credit
- Deutsche Bank
- DZ Bank
- ING
- KBC
- Postal Bank
- Nexi
- Rabobank
- Societe Generale
- Worldline
France will follow in the footsteps of Germany and Belgium this autumn, with the Netherlands and Luxembourg to follow later in 2024.
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