Payment News

Wero Gathers Pace in Europe, But Faces Challenges

Five big banks in Belgium have joined the European Payments Initiative (EPI) with the intention of rolling out the Wero digital wallet and instant account-to-account (A2A) payment application to customers in the first half of next year. Five Luxembourg banks and the fintech super app Revolut have also recently joined, adding to the 40 million registered users who have signed up across Belgium, France and Germany since Wero’s launch in Summer 2024.

However, the number of European Payment Initiative (EPI)/Wero shareholders has dropped from over 30 to just 16. As a result, adoption remains slow – particularly in Germany, which accounts for only 5% of Wero’s transaction volume.

As a result, many merchants go through Payment Service Providers (PSPs), which means they do not fully benefit from the advantages of Single European Payment Area (SEPA) Instant, particularly in terms of the speed of fund reception and liquidity availability, instead continuing to rely on slower and more costly solutions. They can only access Wero if they open an account with one of the 16 member banks.