Wero

Europe is Working on Its Own Digital Payment Infrastructure

The European payment landscape has long been dominated by international providers. A significant portion of card and mobile payments within the European Union is processed through networks like Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, or Alipay. According to the European Central Bank (ECB), 56 percent of cashless payments in EU member states are card payments. Visa and Mastercard process transactions estimated at around 24 trillion USD annually.

Against this backdrop, the ECB aims to establish an independent European payment infrastructure. ECB President Christine Lagarde pointed out in a radio interview that transaction data is regularly processed outside Europe when using common card and mobile payment solutions. This applies to both traditional card payments and digital payment methods.

A key project in this context is the European Payments Initiative. It was founded by 16 European banks and payment service providers, including BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank. The initiative aims to establish a unified, pan-European payment solution.

In July 2024, the EPI launched the digital payment platform Wero. The technical foundation is Sepa instant transfers, enabling real-time transactions within the European payment area. Money transfers can be initiated, among other methods, via phone number.

Currently, around 47 million users are registered in Belgium, France, and Germany. According to the initiative, transactions amounting to more than 7.5 billion euros have been processed by over 1,100 member institutions. At the end of 2025, a function for payments in brick-and-mortar retail was additionally introduced in Germany.

A significant step for scaling was achieved through the merger of the European Payments Initiative with the Europa Alliance. This connects Wero with existing national payment systems, including Bancomat in Italy, Bizum in Spain, MB WAY in Portugal, and Vipps Mobilepay in the Nordic countries. The combined network covers approximately 72 percent of the population of the EU and Norway, according to the participants.

Further development of the platform is already planned. Cross-border peer-to-peer payments are to be introduced later this year. Features for e-commerce and point-of-sale payments are scheduled for 2027. This would allow Wero to cover both private transfers and online and in-store commercial payments in the future.

Thus, Wero is gradually creating a European payment infrastructure that connects national solutions and provides an additional option in the European payment market. The project is part of broader efforts to make digital infrastructures within Europe more autonomous and to technologically and organizationally complement existing systems.