Bank-Backed EPI Processes First E-Commerce Transactions

January 7, 2025 • FinTech News
Bank-Backed EPI Processes First E-Commerce Transactions

The European Payments Initiative (EPI), a venture supported by major banks to challenge Mastercard and Visa in Europe, has achieved a significant milestone by completing its first e-commerce transactions. This development sets the stage for a larger rollout planned for later this year.

Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Success

  • Transactions occurred between late November and mid-December 2024 on the online store of German football club 1. FC Kaiserslautern.
  • The setup integrated EPI’s Wero wallet seamlessly into the merchant platform and the VR Payments acquiring system.
  • End-customers used the wallet via their online banking apps.

Timeline for Rollout

  • Germany: Full-scale launch expected in Summer 2025.
  • Belgium: Rollout in Fall 2025.
  • France: Launch slated for Early 2026.
  • Additional functionalities like in-store payments, BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later), merchant loyalty programs, and expense-sharing features will follow.

EPI Achievements

  • Since its P2P wallet launch in November 2023, EPI has enrolled 14 million users and processed eight million transactions.

E-Commerce Module Features

  • Initial focus on standard use cases: one-off payments and refunds.
  • Future updates to include complex payment models.

Leadership Insights

Martina Weimert, CEO of EPI, emphasized:

“This POC is another key step towards our retail market entry into commercial payments. The aim was to prove our solution is working well end-to-end and is as simple, secure, and effective as we’ve been advocating for. Now we are entering the next phase and preparing for the broad introduction in the coming months.”