Europe’s Answer to Visa & Mastercard: Wero Hits Real Scale

Europe’s payments landscape is shifting from concept to real infrastructure — and at the center of this change is Wero, the pan-European digital wallet built by the European Payments Initiative (EPI).Launched in 2024 as a bank-backed real-time payments solution, Wero has already surpassed 43.5 million registered users in just its first year of operation across Germany, France and Belgium, processing more than €7.5 billion in transfers.Why Wero MattersWero is more than a wallet — it’s Europe’s strategic infrastructure play aimed at reducing dependence on global card networks like Visa and Mastercard, and on dominant tech wallets.Instead of each market operating in isolation with its own local methods, Wero aims to create one unified payment experience across the continent. It is backed by a coalition of 16 major European banks and payment providers, and is planned to replace or absorb legacy local schemes such as iDEAL in the Netherlands, Paylib in France, and Payconiq in Belgium and Luxembourg.Commercial Expansion in 2026The first year’s traction has been driven by person-to-person (P2P) transfers — immediate, bank-to-bank, real-time payments. Now the real commercial test begins:

• E-commerce payments are rolling out in 2026, with pilots already live and merchant integrations underway.
• NFC-enabled point-of-sale payments are planned for later in 2026–2027, enabling tap-to-pay experiences directly from the Wero wallet.

New markets are joining: Luxembourg goes live mid-2026, and the migration from iDEAL to Wero in the Netherlands begins, potentially shifting a whole national payment ecosystem into the unified network.

• Partnerships with European fintechs like Revolut and N26 are expanding Wero’s user reach and distribution across bank apps.

Infrastructure Shift, Not Just Another WalletWero’s rise is part of a broader European payments strategy that also includes political and monetary infrastructure:The European Parliament recently backed the digital euro, targeting a CBDC launch in 2029 — a public settlement layer for digital payments.

• A consortium of banks is developing a euro-backed stablecoin — a private alternative settlement asset.

Together, these initiatives represent one of the most coordinated efforts in decades to build European-owned financial rails, anchored in bank balance sheets and regional governance.The Real Test AheadThough the infrastructure is live and growing, challenges remain:

• Converting tens of millions of users from simple P2P use into habitual e-commerce and point-of-sale paymentsis the operational milestone that determines whether Wero can genuinely rival established networks.
• Consumer habits in Europe remain strong with incumbent wallets and card rails like Apple Pay, Google Pay and Mastercard/Visa.
• Expansion beyond Western Europe into Southern and Eastern EU markets will be essential for true continental scale.

What This Says for Global PaymentsWero’s rapid uptake in Europe highlights a broader structural truth:Real payments infrastructure is not won by brand alone — it’s won by networks and rails that banks and regulators can embed into daily financial life.Much like efforts we are building across Asia and Central Asia with cross-border QR and bank-centric flows, Wero shows that the future of payments will be embedded, interoperable, and bank-grounded — not siloed in isolated wallets.Europe’s journey to payments sovereignty is still unfolding — but the infrastructure layer is now real, growing, and reaching the all-important commercial use case: everyday payments.

‍