After 12 months of existence, Wero has successfully positioned itself on payments between friends and family and is preparing its entry into the online and in-store payment market

Paris, September 15, 2025 – The European Payments Initiative (EPI), the pan-European initiative to create a sovereign and unified payment alternative in Europe, today presents the results of its first twelve months of official activity and unveils the outlines of the launch of its e-commerce payment solution, expected in 2026.

Available since the second half of 2024 for transactions between individuals in Belgium, France and Germany, Wero already has more than 43.5 million registered users. In 2026, two new countries will join the initiative: Luxembourg, from June 2026 and the Netherlands, where the migration of the iDEAL solution to Wero will start next year. Initially launched with person-to-person (P2P) payment functionality, the pace of growth in transactions has been steady, for a total amount transferred of more than €7.5 billionover the past year, with a real democratization of the use of Wero for payments between friends or the sale of second-hand objects between individuals.

Designed as an alternative to international payment systems, Wero offers Europeans a secure and seamless mobile payment solution. The project, supported by 16 European banks and payment service providers, continues to expand with the integration of new bank members, such as the Belgian banks Argenta, Bank Van Breda, Beobank, Crelan, vdk bank and Revolut in recent weeks. EPI now has 25 members, including 14 new non-shareholders, divided between banks (on the consumer side) and acquirers (on the merchant side).

Wero's development does not stop there: after responding to its call for the accelerated realization of European payments sovereignty in April 2025, EuroPA has embarked on a cooperation process alongside EPI, the preliminary work of which was completed at the end of the summer to culminate in a detailed design phase until the end of the year. In addition, new markets are expressing interest in the integration of Wero in the future, including Austria.

"The growing adoption of Wero is proof that more and more Europeans are choosing to pay locally with our mobile solution, which is instant, secure and tailored to their needs. We are proud to see our vision, and those of our partners, become even more real thanks to the upcoming deployments on e-commerce. The enthusiasm of Europeans, consumers and merchants, demonstrates the need for a sovereign European alternative, and we thank them for supporting this ambition with us. Together, we can take back control, while offering everyone the most advanced features in the future,"  says Martina Weimert, CEO of EPI.

"The acceleration of payment sovereignty in Europe is underway. EPI has achieved major milestones in recent months, including increasing adoption of Wero by private individuals and the launch of cooperation work with EuroPA. BNP Paribas' teams are fully mobilized to support the next chapter that is opening with e-merchants. Thanks to our large presence in Europe, we will be able to support them in all the countries where Wero has been deployed." — Thierry Laborde, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Commercial, Personal Banking & Services, BNP Paribas.

"Since its launch in September 2024 by Groupe BPCE, the Wero service has seen increasing adoption among Banque Populaire and Caisse d'Epargne customers, with nearly 50 million Wero transactions, for a cumulative amount of more than €3 billion. The success of Wero's person-to-person (P2P) functionality is confirmed with a growth of 200,000 new user customers each month. This is a real asset for the development of e-commerce functionality, which Groupe BPCE will deploy for its consumer and merchant customers, based on the agility of our fintech Payplug, which addresses the entire retail market. - Yves Tyrode, Chief Digital & Payments Officer of Groupe BPCE.

"In October 2024, Crédit Agricole was one of the first French banks to offer Wero to all its customers. Today, nearly 5 million of them, within the Regional Banks and LCL, use this service every month. This success is a testament to the growing appetite for instant, secure and frictionless payment solutions. This regular user base is a solid foundation for the development of the future Wero e-commerce payment" — Philippe Marquetty, Chief Executive Officer of Crédit Agricole Payment Services.

"One year after its launch, Wero demonstrates the relevance of a European initiative led by its economic players. Because this solution brings real added value through its simplicity and security, our members and customers have massively adopted it. As part of a cooperative project that goes beyond EPI's members, Wero is the viable solution for building European sovereignty in payments. — Frantz Rublé, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale and Chairman of Euro-Information.

"The Wero service is accessible to La Banque Postale customers via a dedicated application developed with EPI, available on the App Stores since the end of 2024. Its use continues to grow with our customers, with a sustained rate of enrolment and more regular use than before with Paylib. This first success contributes to the reputation of the Wero brand and prepares our customers, individuals and companies, for the future use cases they will be able to benefit from, particularly in the field of e-commerce. From 2026, we will offer them the opportunity to use Wero for their online purchases or collections, positioning Wero as a credible alternative in the market for digital payment solutions. — Zakaria Moursli, Executive Vice President in charge of operational performance, payments and digital at La Banque Postale.

"This success is a testament to Wero's anchoring in our customers' daily payment habits. At SG, we are proud to offer all the features of account-to-account private payment since October 2024. By building on the successful adoption of consumers, we will be able to broaden the use of e-commerce payments to support merchants in their business and development with an innovative, competitive and useful solution" — Thierry Le Marre, Co-Head of the SG Retail Banking Network in France, Societe Generale Group.

EPI is set to add new features to Wero with the launch of its online payment solution for retail, first in Germany at the end of 2025, and then in Belgium and France by 2026. After familiarizing themselves with the P2P version for peer-to-peer transfers, Wero's more than 43.5 million users will be able to find merchants this payment scheme that they quickly adopted and that is now part of their daily lives. The first French merchants have already signed a collaboration agreement with EPI, such as Air France, E. Leclerc, ESF (the Frech Ski School), Orange - Sosh, Veepee, or Dott, which will allow users of these services to settle their transactions in a simple and intuitive way, via Wero.

The General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFIP), a payment operator for the State and local authorities, has also announced its interest in integrating Wero as a means of payment for public merchants (local authorities, museums, hospitals, etc.). The DGFIP will thus become the first public entity in Europe to offer Wero to its users as a means of payment, and could quickly be followed by other European public actors.

Thanks to EPI's 100% API-based infrastructure, merchants will benefit from a simplified onboarding process. Wero will allow merchants to easily connect with consumers anywhere in Europe, through a solution developed by and for Europeans, while users will enjoy a frictionless cross-border payment experience.

In the long term, Wero will make it possible to make online payments, in-store payments, but also to pay for subscriptions and offer value-added services such as the integration of merchants' loyalty programs. For merchants, transactions will gradually cover both simple and complex cases such as payment according to use or in several instalments to cover all market needs.