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In this discussion with Martina Weimert, CEO of the European Payments Initiative (EPI), we explore the motivation behind Wero, its standout features, roadmap, the EPI’s perspective on the digital euro, plans for geographical expansion and the innovative future developments set to transform Europe’s payment landscape.
The ambition of the Wero digital wallet is to offer a European sovereign unified payment solution to address the needs of consumers, professionals and merchants in all European markets. Furthermore, all our shareholders want to bundle their innovation investment in this area of payments so they can create synergies and become more relevant nationally and internationally against global competitors.
The roadmap started with Person-to-Person (P2P) payments, launched this year and will follow in 2025 with the launch of e-commerce and m-commerce payments. We conducted a successful proof of concept in Germany in December this year.
Later in 2026 and 2027, Wero will offer Point of Sales (PoS) payments as well as subscriptions management and value-added services.
First and foremost, Wero is a European solution, offering consumers across multiple countries (Belgium, France and Germany for now, followed by the Netherlands and Luxembourg) a common payment solution that allows them to pay digitally, easily and safely with a mobile for all payment use cases. This is unique and does not mean a different integration for each market.
Simplicity of use was crucial from the starting point of our project. We wanted everyone to use it in their daily life, which is why we relied on instant payment first.
Control is also a paramount topic when it comes to personal finance and payment conversations. This is simplified by the account-to-account model we chose as a pillar for Wero’s payment means. This will benefit both consumers and professionals as it will allow them to check their balance directly before making a payment.
We believe in unification and collaboration between the different Member States, which was the starting point of our adventure as well as of the digital euro. Both initiatives want to support European sovereignty actively.
EPI is willing to integrate the digital euro to allow consumers to leverage this payment means in the Wero wallet.
This integration will bring a real benefit to consumers and decrease the implementation burden for banks. In this context, cooperation with the European Central Bank (ECB) on topics like standards will be crucial to the Wero wallet. ..
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