European Payments Initiative

European Payments Initiative
Operating area	Single Euro Payments Area
Members	20 major European banks
Founded	2020
Website	www.epicompany.eu

The European Payments Initiative (EPI), previously known as the Pan-European Payments System Initiative (PEPSI),^[1] is a unified digital payment service backed by 16 European banks and payment service providers. Its aim is to allow European consumers and merchants to make next-generation payments for all types of person-to-person transfers and retail transactions via a digital wallet, called Wero. Wero is based on instant account-to-account payments and will eliminate intermediaries in the payment chain and associated costs.

It is supported by the European Commission, and currently comprises fourteen major European banks and two acquirers (including all the major French banks, Deutsche Bank in Germany. ^[2]

First attempt

The EPI scheme is not the first attempt to set up a European interbank payment and card network. The Monnet Project was initiated in 2008 by around twenty European banks but abandoned in 2012.

The European Payments initiative was first suggested as a response to threats to the independence of international financial service infrastructure which could force the American companies MasterCard and VISA to cut off access to their networks in Europe. These threats led European institutions to launch a second initiative to create an independent payment system. ^[3]

Partnerships

The EPI project is backed by the European Commission and has 16 founding shareholders based in Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands: ABN Amro, Belfius, Crédit Mutuel, BNP Paribas, Groupe BPCE, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, DZ Bank, ING Group, KBC Bank, La Banque Postale, Nexi, Rabobank, Société Générale, Worldline.^[4]

Infrastructure

The EPI system is based on the SEPA instant credit transfer (SCT Inst) scheme, allowing it to capitalise on powerful and sophisticated existing infrastructures, such as the Eurosystem's TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS).^[5] Wero, with its payment network, digital wallet and international instant payments scheme, aims to replace European domestic solutions such as Swish, iDEAL, Bizum and Blik. QR code payments will be available for both money transfers and payments, with plans for more payment options in the future.

Wero is available both through the mobile apps of member banks and as a standalone app. It offers currency conversion throughout Europe. The first countries to launch Wero are Belgium, France and Germany.

Wero

The European Payments Initiative (EPI) has announced its intention to launch under the name 'Wero' in Germany in mid-2024, followed by France and Belgium later in that year and the Netherlands in 2025. The rest of Europe will follow in subsequent years.

Wero will initially enable person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-professional (P2Pro) payments, followed by online and mobile shopping payments and then point-of-sale payments. It will offer a comprehensive range of transaction types, including one-off payments, subscriptions, installments, payments upon delivery and reservations.

Value-added services will be incorporated into the solution over time, including responsible ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL) financing, digital identity features (allowing the tracking of consumers in every EU country and the blocking of payments when needed) and the integration of merchant loyalty programmes.

In October 2024, seven French banks deployed Wero.^[6] It replaces fr:Paylib for them.

Acquisition of iDEAL & Payconiq

EPI Company acquired the payment providers iDEAL (Netherlands) and Payconiq International (Luxembourg) in October 2023. ^[7]^[8]

References

^ Keohane, David (9 June 2021). "Why Europe's banks want to end US dominance in payments". www.ft.com. Retrieved 23 June 2021. It got off to a rocky start last summer when US soft drinks group PepsiCo objected to its proposed name: The Pan-European Payment System Initiative, or, PEPSI.
^ Benhamou, Éric (29 June 2020). "Paiements : vingt banques européennes lancent leur propre système". Les Echos (in French). Retrieved 29 June 2020.
^ Evans, David S. (1 October 2014). "How the Proposed Payments Legislation Will Restrain Competition Among Payment Card Schemes and Harm Consumers in the European Union". Social Science Research Network. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2503696. S2CID 167639084. SSRN 2503696.
^ "Europe's largest banks plan joint attack on US payments giants". Financial Times. 3 May 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
^ Bank, European Central (2 July 2020). "ECB welcomes initiative to launch new European payment solution" – via www.ecb.europa.eu. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^ "First steps in France for Wero, the European electronic wallet". Le Monde. Archived from the original on 2 October 2024.
^ "EPI acquires iDEAL and Payconiq International". The Paypers. 1 November 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
^ "EPI successfully completes acquisition of iDEAL and Payconiq International". Epi company. 31 October 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2024.