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.”
