European Payments Initiative

EPI started in July 2020, when 16 banks from Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain set up an interim company in Brussels. Today EPI has 18 shareholders, and they come from six European countries. In Germany, Deutsche Bank holds shares, the savings banks take part through their association DSGV, and the cooperative banks take part through DZ BANK. The French shareholders are BNP Paribas, Groupe BPCE, Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel, La Banque Postale and Société Générale, together with the payment processor Worldline.

Belfius and KBC hold shares from Belgium, ABN AMRO, ING and Rabobank from the Netherlands, and the Italian payment company Nexi is also a shareholder. Erste Bank Oesterreich and Raiffeisen Bank International became shareholders on 22 June 2026 to bring Wero to Austria, and three regional Raiffeisen banks intend to follow after approval by their supervisory boards. Beyond its owners, EPI had more than 50 member institutions in September 2026, and its member banks serve more than 75 percent of retail banking customers in Belgium, France and Germany.

The plan of 2020 described a card for consumers and merchants, a digital wallet and payments between people, all based on SEPA instant credit transfers. On 31 October 2023, EPI completed the purchase of Currence iDEAL B.V. and Payconiq International S.A., which brought a payment method with 3.5 million transactions per day and a technology provider from Luxembourg into the company. The National Bank of Belgium authorized EPI as a payment institution on 20 February 2024, with licenses for payment initiation and account information services.

EPI launched Wero on 2 July 2024 for customers of the German savings banks and the Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken, and KBC in Belgium and the French banks followed in the months after. Wero started with transfers between people, addressed by phone number, email address or a personal QR code. Online payments went live in Germany at the end of 2025, and Decathlon, dm, Eventim and Lidl are among the shops that accept Wero there.

iDEAL is the payment method that Dutch shoppers use to pay online straight from their bank account, and since the takeover it runs on technology from Payconiq International. EPI plans the migration of iDEAL to Wero for 2027. Together with Payconiq in Luxembourg, the two migrations bring at least 15 million consumers to Wero, by the count of EPI.

Luxembourg became the fourth Wero market when the wallet launched there on 1 September 2026 with BIL, BGL BNP Paribas, Banque Raiffeisen, POST Luxembourg and Spuerkeess. The Payconiq platform closed on 30 September 2026, and Payconiq QR codes on invoices and in shops can be scanned with the Wero app until the end of 2026.

EPI works with the European Payments Alliance, known as EuroPA, whose members run national payment apps in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Greece and the Nordic countries. In February 2026, Bancomat, Bizum, EPI, SIBS with MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay signed a memorandum of understanding to connect their services through one interoperability hub. In September 2026 the five partners set up the European Network for Payments, a joint company in Madrid with equal shares that operates this hub.

The partners count about 130 million users in 13 countries, which covers more than 70 percent of the population of the EU and Norway. Payments between people across borders come first, and payments in online shops and in stores follow in later phases that have no fixed dates yet.

Wero had 60 million users in September 2026, and more than 48,000 merchants in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands had taken Wero payments online or in stores. The wallet runs on instant payments under the SEPA instant credit transfer scheme of the European Payments Council, so the money arrives in the bank account of the recipient within seconds.

At the checkout counter, Belgian shoppers can pay by scanning a Wero QR code on Payworld terminals, and EPI members test contactless account-to-account payments with existing terminals in trial setups. Wider availability at the point of sale in France and Germany is planned from 2027. In Germany, a shop connects Wero payments through a payment provider that supports the service.

Wero belongs to EPI Company SE, the company behind the European Payments Initiative, and EPI in turn belongs to 18 banks and payment service providers. The shareholders are banks from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria, plus the payment companies Worldline and Nexi.

Martina Weimert is the chief executive officer of EPI and announced the launch of Wero in Germany in July 2024. She also speaks for the company in the 2026 announcements on Luxembourg, Austria and the European Network for Payments.

EPI Company SE is a European company with its registered office at De Lignestraat 13 in Brussels and a share capital of EUR 838,075,497.30. The National Bank of Belgium supervises it as a payment institution with licenses for payment initiation and account information services.

Wero comes through the member banks of EPI, which together serve more than three quarters of retail banking customers in Belgium, France and Germany. The online bank bunq was the first bank to complete the Wero rollout across four markets, and acquirers such as Unzer and HiPay connect merchants to the wallet.

Wero works for payments between people in Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg, and shoppers in Germany and Belgium can already pay online with it. In the Netherlands iDEAL moves to Wero in 2027, and EPI expects the launch in Austria in the same year.