EPI chooses 'Wero' as brand name for its digital wallet solution

The European Payments Initiative (EPI) has chosen ‘wero’ to be the commercial name of its digital wallet solution set to be launched in coming months. The bank-backed venture was introduced to become a rival of payment giants, Visa and Mastercard in the European continent.

EPI’s digital wallet solution

Notably, the launch of digital wallet solution - wero is in line with the EPI’s motive to revolutionize the continent’s digital payment space. The venture enjoys support from major banks in the region including Nexi, Belfius, ABN Amro, and BNP Paribas among others.

EPI’s CEO, Martina Weimert stated, “In a market filled with predictable ‘pay’ brand names, wero stood out from a list of 238 candidate names we considered since it combines different elements which we stand for: the collective European character of the ‘we’ and a pronunciation close to the word ‘Euro’”.

The wero digital wallet is set to be rolled out in phases. At first, it will support consumer-to-business and peer-to-peer payments that are account-to-account based. With time, it will then introduce mobile and online shopping payments before rolling out point-of-sale payments.

Th4e venture is expected to be launched in Belgium, Germany, and France in mid-2024 and later on to Netherlands. In the coming years, it is set to expand to other nations.

The decision to use ‘Wero’ as the brand name comes a few months after the EPI announced its decision to acquire mobile payments app, Payconiq and Dutch payment scheme, iDeal. This is in accordance with its goal of creating a unified and strong pan-European payment solution that fulfils the needs of merchants and customers.