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Brussels, 21 September 2023: The European Payments Initiative (EPI) is proud to announce the selection of “wero” as the commercial name for its ground-breaking digital wallet solution. This strategic initiative aims to deliver a European digital payment solution built to meet evolving payment needs and to provide a seamless and user-friendly payment experience to consumers and merchants across Europe. The acronym EPI will continue to exist as the corporate name.
wero is set to redefine the way people living in Europe pay and would like to get paid, by leveraging an account-to-account infrastructure enabling faster payment flows with a wide range of value-added services. Through this new digital wallet, consumers will have access to a comprehensive range of features, such as secure and fast payments, person-to-person (P2P) transactions, online shopping capabilities, loyalty programs, etc. EPI envisions wero to become the preferred digital wallet in Europe, bridging the existing gaps in the current payment ecosystem.
”Choosing the name wero was a meticulous process involving extensive research, and quantitative and qualitative feedback from consumers. 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”. Finally, wero is close to “vero” meaning “true” in Latin-based languages. I personally find it catchy with its simple yet memorable structure. The short and snappy sound resonates with the fast-paced nature of digital transactions”, says Martina Weimert, the CEO of EPI.
wero will be available through EPI’s member banks’ applications and as a mobile application on both Android and iOS platforms. Currently, EPI is actively working towards launching wero by mid-2024 in Belgium, France and Germany, followed by the Netherlands, and aims to extend to other countries in the years to come.
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About EPI:
The European Payments Initiative (EPI) is an initiative backed by 16 European banks and financial services companies to progressively build a payment solution tailored for Europe. EPI leverages the instant account-to-account payments infrastructure available in Europe to improve efficiency and remove intermediaries in the payment flow. It aims at enabling the next-generation payments for consumers and merchants in Europe across all types of retail transactions. EPI will initially support person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-professional (P2Pro) payments, followed by online and mobile shopping payments and then point-of-sale payments.
