June 22, 2025
EuroPA and EPI launch collaboration to expand sovereign Pan-European payments
June 23rd, 2025 – The EuroPA alliance (European Payments Alliance) – represented by Bancomat, Bizum, MB WAY (SIBS), and Vipps MobilePay – and EPI Company (EPI) have announced their cooperation, now exploring solutions to rapidly address Europe’s sovereignty challenge in payments, especially regarding cross-border transactions. This initiative aims at enabling European citizens to send and receive payments seamlessly across the continent, for the benefit of both consumers and merchants.
The collaboration between EuroPA and EPI is driven by a shared interest in exploring a joint solution that leverages the strong adoption and existing capabilities of each participant through enhanced interconnectivity. The aim is to cover all use cases (person-to-person and commercial payments both online and in-store) across the markets of the participating solutions. The ongoing study is expected to conclude by the end of this summer.
This agreement will initially cover 15 European countries, collectively representing over 382 million inhabitants (84% of the European Union population and Norway), enabling them to continue using their preferred digital payment solutions both locally and across Europe, and provide an approach for markets with no solution so far.Interconnecting existing solutions is a rapid path forward to European sovereignty and independence—a goal shared by both the European Commission and Eurosystem. This approach, grounded in Europe’s best-in-class solutions and diversity, will continue to drive innovation, convenience, and efficiency for both consumers and merchants.
About EuroPA
The EuroPA (European Payments Alliance) initiative is formed by leading mobile payment service providers in their respective European markets. Its vision is to contribute to the development of a sovereign and robust pan-European payments market through interoperability among existing payment solutions, leveraging SEPA instant payment standards and the most widely adopted mobile payment solutions in various European countries.
Within this alliance, interoperability among users of Bancomat, Bizum, and MB WAY/ SIBS (the three founding solutions) is effective since March 2025. This will enable over 50 million users in Andorra, Italy, Portugal and Spain (customers of 186 financial institutions operating across the continent) to send and receive money instantly using their preferred payment solutions. Recently, other similar solutions—Blik (Poland), IRIS (Greece), and Vipps MobilePay (Nordic countries)—have joined the initiative and will gradually be integrated into operations. This confirms EuroPA’s growth trajectory, reaching over 100 million users in 10 European countries through fully operational infrastructures and trusted brands.
About EPI
EPI (or European Payments Initiative) is supported by 16 European banks and payment service providers. They have joined forces with a common goal: to offer a unified mobile payment service, to all European companies and citizens, Wero. EPI intends to enable European consumers and to carry out all types of retail transactions simply, via a resolutely sovereign digital wallet.
About Wero
Based on instant account-to-account (A2A) payments, Wero further streamlines payments in Europe by eliminating intermediaries in the payment chain and the associated additional costs. Wero already supports payments between individuals, and will shortly unveil payments to professionals (P2Pro) and those for online and mobile purchases. Point-of-sale payments will also be offered, as well as value-added services such as merchant loyalty programs and recurring subscription management.