EPI joins nexo standards to empower Wero’s pan-European ambition through interoperable payment acceptance
EPI becomes member of nexo standards, reflecting its commitment to open standards and greater European payment choice.
European Payments Initiative (EPI), the pan-European payment scheme to create a sovereign and unified payment alternative for Europe, has joined nexo standards. “The membership supports EPI’s ambition to make Wero practical for merchants to accept across European markets thanks to a wide support of payment providers and acceptance technologies.” – according to the press release.
nexo standards develops open payment specifications and messaging protocols that enable payment acceptance systems to communicate using a common framework based on ISO 20022. EPI’s membership confirms its ambition to have Wero supported on a broad range of acceptance infrastructure and will allow it to follow developments in the use of these standards for account-to-account payments with Wero.
With 60 million users, Wero’s ambition is to become an everyday payment choice for consumers and merchants across Europe. Delivering on that ambition requires acceptance infrastructure that can accommodate European account-to-account payments across different markets and technical environments.
Open standards can help address this fragmentation by simplifying connections between payment systems and supporting the integration of new payment methods. Joining nexo standards aligns with EPI’s approach to support compatible acceptance solutions and following the evolution of standards for account-to-account payments.
“Europe’s payment ambitions need to translate into practical choices for consumers and businesses. For Wero, that means building a European solution that merchants can accept across different markets and payment environments and offered by all banks across the continent. Open standards and interoperability help create those conditions. Our membership with nexo standards reflects this approach and our ambition to bring greater European payment choice to everyday commerce.”
Wero contactless payment feature, thanks to QR code scanning already provides a practical illustration of this approach. A demonstration presented at NRF Europe in Paris in September showed how Wero payments can be supported on payment terminals with a nexo-based acceptance environment. Such use cases will be further developed as part of the in-store payment rollout across markets in 2027, which will include too NFC integration in the long run.
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EPI (or European Payments Initiative) is supported by 18 European banks and payment service providers. Beyond the shareholders, over 50 institutions in Europe are now members of EPI. They have joined forces with a common goal: to offer a unified mobile payment service, to all European companies and citizens, Wero. EPI intends to enable European consumers and merchants and to carry out all types of retail transactions simply, via a resolutely sovereign digital wallet.
Based on instant account-to-account (A2A) payments, Wero further streamlines payments in Europe by eliminating intermediaries in the payment chain and the associated additional costs. Wero already supports payments between individuals, and will shortly unveil payments to professionals (P2Pro). Wero has been live for P2P payments in Belgium, France, and Germany since 2024, currently serving 59 million users. For retail payments, Wero is live in Germany since the end of 2025 with progressive roll-out in France and Belgium throughout 2026. Major migrations of at least 15 million consumers are also planned for Payconiq in Luxembourg (by 2026) and iDEAL in the Netherlands (by 2027). Point-of-sale payments will also be offered in 2026, as well as value-added services such as integration of merchant loyalty programs and recurring payments and subscription management.
