EU payment gateway Computop is inviting merchants to participate in pilot trials for the bank-supported European Payments Initiative’s wero wallet scheme.
The wero digital wallet will be launched in phases, starting with account-to-account instant peer-to-peer (P2P) and consumer-to-business payments. This will be followed by support for online and mobile shopping payments, and eventually point-of-sale transactions.
The initiative is backed by several member banks, including ABN Amro, Belfius, BFCM, BNP Paribas, BPCE, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, DSGV, DZ Bank, ING, KBC, La Banque Postale, Rabobank, and Société Générale, along with support from Nexi and Worldline.
In December, the EPI completed its first account-to-account instant payment transaction in a proof-of-concept demonstration between customers of Sparkasse Elbe-Elster in Germany and Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Epargne (Groupe BPCE) in France. While payments between individuals are expected to roll out in 2024, online retailers are anticipated to be included by mid-2025.
Computop is encouraging merchants to sign up for the pilot phase in Q4 2024, which will integrate the payment method into its Paygate payment platform. The vendor states that all APIs and the preconfigured Hosted Payment Page will facilitate wero payments without requiring significant development.
Wero transactions will typically be initiated by customers within their bank’s app or the new wero wallet. Future plans include enabling merchant apps to accept wero payments, and desktop e-commerce will initiate payments via QR code.
Computop believes that merchants will benefit from the expansion of wero to include physical retail applications and various other functionalities, such as reservations and refunds, aimed at mimicking the capabilities of debit card transactions. ‘Payments without a terminal (scan and go)’ will also be incorporated, along with potential value-added services like merchant loyalty integrations and buy now, pay later options.
Stephan Kück, managing director of Computop, highlights that the EPI will function as a four-party scheme akin to credit card systems, allowing significant advantages for merchants through the multi-acquirer concept of the payment platform and seamless integration for multi-country operations.
Martina Weimert, CEO of EPI, notes that the collaboration with Computop signifies “the beginning of the e-commerce journey” with wero. She expressed enthusiasm for this first agreement, which provides merchants with a new payment solution tailored to their and their customers’ needs for ease, security, service, and cost-effectiveness. Weimert looks forward to many more developments in the initiative.