Wero: Is the European Payment Revolution 2025?

On December 29, 2024, Giropay will be hired after almost ten years. The payment service could not meet expectations as a serious competition with PayPal. German banks are now focusing on the new European payment service Wero, which is designed as an alternative to US providers such as PayPal. However, not all banks participate in Wero; Among other things, the Commerzbank and N26.

A survey by Verivox shows that 88% of the 1,000 respondents in Germany do not know what Wero is, and only 22 of the respondents have used Wero so far. Oliver Maier von Verivox emphasizes the need for its own European payment procedure. 61% of the survey participants do not believe that Wero can offer serious competition with the market -leading American providers. Joachim Schmalzl from the German Sparkassen and Giroverband (GDP) emphasizes that the establishment of a new payment system will take time.

news about Wero

Wero started on July 2, 2024 and is supported by savings banks, cooperative banks and Deutsche Bank to replace Giropay. The name Wero consists of "We" (we) and "Euro" and is (true) based on the Italian word "vero". By December 2024, Wero recorded 17 million registered users who carried out around 12 million transactions. The payments are limited to EUR 1,000 if the participating banks do not set a lower limit.

The introduction of Wero as a real-time payment system aims to make the payment uncomplicated and user-friendly. An independent Wero app was published on November 25, 2024 and enables mobile phone-to-cell phone payments in Belgium, Germany and France. From 2025, Deutsche Bank and Ing Wero should also offer. The planned functions include online payments from mid-2025 and inpatient payments at the cash register from 2026.

The EPI initiative that supports Wero has the goal of creating a European counterweight to American payment service providers. EPI was launched by 16 financial service providers, including Deutsche Bank and DZ Bank. At the end of 2024, around 900 financial institutions are to offer Wero. Talks to integrate Wero into the apps of the member banks are already underway.