European Payments Initiative

The European Payments Initiative (EPI), previously known as the Pan-European Payments System Initiative (PEPSI), is a unified digital payment service backed by 16 European banks and payment service providers. Its aim is to allow European consumers and merchants to make next-generation payments for all types of person-to-person transfers and retail transactions via a digital wallet, called Wero. Wero is based on instant account-to-account payments and will eliminate intermediaries in the payment chain and associated costs.

It is supported by the European Commission, and currently comprises fourteen major European banks and two acquirers (including all the major French banks, Deutsche Bank in Germany).

First attempt

The EPI scheme is not the first attempt to set up a European interbank payment and card network. The Monnet Project was initiated in 2008 by around twenty European banks but abandoned in 2012.

The European Payments initiative was first suggested as a response to threats to the independence of international financial service infrastructure which could force the American companies MasterCard and VISA to cut off access to their networks in Europe. These threats led European institutions to launch a second initiative to create an independent payment system.

Partnerships

The EPI project is backed by the European Commission. It has 16 founding shareholders based in Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands: ABN Amro, Belfius, Crédit Mutuel, BNP Paribas, Groupe BPCE, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, DZ Bank, ING Group, KBC Bank, La Banque Postale, Nexi, Rabobank, Société Générale, Worldline.

On 23 June 2025, EPI and the European Payments Alliance (EuroPA) annnounced that they will cooperate and create a partnership in order to explore solutions for developing a cross-border digital payments solution aimed at improving payment interoperability within Europe. Such a partnership would cover 15 European countries (with a combined population of around 382 million inhabitants, amouting to 84% of the European Union and Norway and this interconnection of existing payment solutions could provide the EU with a path towards sovereignty and independence from the US in terms of payment solutions (a market dominated by US payment card services firms like Visa; Mastercard and American Express).

Infrastructure

The EPI system is based on the SEPA instant credit transfer (SCT Inst) scheme, allowing it to capitalise on powerful and sophisticated existing infrastructures such as the Eurosystem's TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS). Wero, with its payment network, digital wallet and international instant payments scheme, aims to replace European domestic solutions such as Swish, iDEAL, Bizum and Blik. QR code payments will be available for both money transfers and payments, with plans for more payment options in the future.  

Wero is available both through the mobile apps of most member banks or, for some banks, via a standalone Wero app. It offers currency conversion throughout Europe.

Wero

The European Payments Initiative (EPI) announced its intention to launch Wero, its wallet-based payment method in Germany in mid-2024, followed by France and Belgium later in that year and the Netherlands in 2025. The rest of Europe will follow in subsequent years.

Wero initially allows person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-professional (P2Pro) payments, which will be followed by online and mobile shopping payments and then point-of-sale payments. It will offer a comprehensive range of transaction types, including one-off payments, subscriptions, installments, payments upon delivery and reservations.

Value-added services will be incorporated into the solution over time, including responsible ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL) financing, digital identity features (allowing the tracking of consumers in every EU country and the blocking of payments when needed) and the integration of merchant loyalty programmes.

In October 2024, seven French banks deployed Wero. It replaces :fr:Paylib for them.

iDEAL & Payconiq

EPI Company acquired the payment providers Currence iDEAL BV and Payconiq International SA in October 2023. Currently the payment methods ''iDEAL'' in The Netherlands, ''Payconiq'' in Luxembourg and ''Payconiq by Bancontact'' in Belgium are offerings in their local markets, although integration of those offerings into Wero are looked into.

References

See also

* Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes, a previous failed European attempt to unify European payment systems
* Instant payment

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Banking in Europe
Banking in the European Union
Credit card issuer associations
Debit card issuer associations
European Economic Area
Eurozone
Financial services in Europe
Interbank networks
Payment systems