European Payments Initiative (EPI), a European entity claiming to be focused on offering a sovereign payment alternative to all consumers in the region, announced the launch of Wero.
The European instant account-to-account payment solution will be available to French customers of BNP Paribas, Groupe BPCE, Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, La Banque Postale and Société Générale, as well as many of their subsidiaries.
Although most banking institutions will initially offer Wero via their applications, La Banque Postale customers will be able to make payments using the Wero application, developed by EPI.
It will be available in all smartphone application shops from the second half of October 2024.
The first Wero brand campaign will be launched in France on October 14th.
The deployment calendar is as follows:
- BNP Paribas : Starting October 24th, 2024
- Groupe BPCE : From September 2nd to October 2nd, 2024
- Crédit Agricole : September 26th, 20241
- Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale : From September 25th to November 6th, 2024
- Crédit Mutuel Arkéa : January 2025
- La Banque Postale : October 28th, 2024
- Société Générale : Starting October 24th, 20242
The launch of the person-to-person (P2P) service should allow clients with a French banking account to send and receive funds instantly, using a telephone number or email address.
Wero will take over from Paylib, whose 35 million registered users will be provide a switch to the European payment service before Paylib is discontinued in early 2025.
The plan is to integrate various functionalities3 later on, such as the “Money Request” function and the generation of individual QR codes so that users don’t have to give their phone number when completing a person-to-person payment.
After the start of the solution in Germany in July 2024, users from both countries will now be able to make cross-border payments between the already rolled-out participating banks and their customers.
In Belgium, all member banks will have deployed the solution by the end of the year4. Luxemburg and the Netherlands will follow in a subsequent step.
The promise of the Wero service is simple: to offer a single, secure mobile payment wallet that will eventually encompass all the payment functionalities required by a user in Europe.
Due to its integration with member banks, consumers are able to use Wero via their everyday or typical banking application or the standalone application developed by EPI.
Wero will give users an overview of their spending in real-time, thus allowing them to centralize all their payments simply and securely.
Beyond the P2P use case, EPI’s ambition with Wero is to integrate key functionalities from 2025, as it is introduced to merchants.
This shoudinclude payment at small retailers using the Wero wallet, before online payment on merchant sites and recurring payments management (such as subscriptions).
Point-of-sale payments at major retailers are included in the wallet’s development plans.
Other services, such as Buy Now-Pay Later (staggered payments), the integration of merchant loyalty programs, and shared spending, are also in the pipeline.
In 3 to 4 years, Wero will aim to become a single European payment wallet offering the opportunity to take control of their finances, simply and securely, while respecting their needs on data confidentiality with European regulations.
Eric Petitgand, General Manager, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale noted that the launch of Wero in France represents a major step towards enhancing European sovereignty in the financial industry.
Eric also mentioned that this initiative boosts consumer confidence by offering standardized and secure payment solutions and contributes to the growth of the European economy by facilitating reliable transactions, while supporting innovation and competitiveness.
Philippe Aymerich, Delegate General Manager, Groupe Société Générale said that the Societe Generale Group is pleased to be part of this collective initiative, which will provide customers with a new European, instant and innovative payment solution.
They are convinced that the banks’ expertise in security, customer protection and transformation support are essential assets to ensure Wero’s success.
