European Payments Initiative

Common card · No. 282982

The European Payments Initiative (EPI), previously known as the Pan-European Payments System Initiative (PEPSI), is a unified digital payment service launched in 2020 and backed by sixteen founding 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 and Deutsche Bank in Germany). In early 2026, the movement to reduce dependence, and thus geopolitical vulnerability, on US-based Visa and Mastercard accelerated. The European Central Bank also plans to introduce the digital euro by 2029.

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