N26 switched on Wero inside its own app for customers in Germany and France on August 11, 2026. On its face, the move is minor: a neobank adds a money transfer feature it already offered between its own customers. But it says something about where Europe’s wallet is heading. Wero was built by incumbent banks grouped in the European Payments Initiative (EPI), and a growing share of its new users now comes from institutions that are not EPI shareholders.
N26 customers can now pay accounts at other banks
For now, the feature covers person-to-person payments only. Once they activate it in the app, N26 customers can send and receive money with a mobile number or an email address instead of an IBAN. Funds reach the recipient’s bank account in under 10 seconds, at any hour.
- No IBAN to swap: the recipient’s phone number or email is enough, and Wero looks up the account behind it.
- No extra app: the recipient needs neither an N26 account nor a new download, as long as their bank is connected to Wero.
- No cutoff times: the service runs 24/7, including weekends and public holidays.
- Opt-in: customers have to switch the feature on in the N26 app before their first payment.
N26 signed up in December 2025
N26 announced it would join Wero in December 2025, with a rollout planned for the second half of 2026 in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. It has hit that timeline in the first two markets. Other markets will follow gradually, with no date given. “Instant payments without an IBAN have been a core N26 feature since our inception,” said Daniel Lappas, N26’s chief product and business officer. Until now, that feature only worked between N26 customers. Wero extends it to any account connected to the scheme.
A bank-backed project leans on outsiders to grow
Wero is backed by 16 banks and payment providers, including BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, and La Banque Postale. EPI had 25 members as of September 2025, 14 of which were not shareholders. The project’s stated goal is sovereignty: giving Europeans an alternative to Visa , Mastercard , and US wallets. Yet part of its growth is coming from digital-native institutions that bring younger, cross-border customer bases without owning a piece of the project.
| Institution | Status | Access |
|---|---|---|
| N26 | Live since August 11, 2026 (Germany, France) | In the N26 app |
| Revolut | Live | In the institution’s app |
| Nickel | Live | In the institution’s app |
| bunq | Live | In the institution’s app |
| BoursoBank | Announced by the end of 2026 | Not specified |
| La Banque Postale | Live | Through the standalone Wero app |
Two distribution models coexist. Integration into the banking app puts Wero in a journey customers already use. The standalone Wero app has remained marginal in France. The first model protects the bank’s customer relationship, while the second would give the Wero brand a life of its own. The ecosystem has chosen the first.
Merchant payments are Wero’s real test
Person-to-person payments don’t make money. Their job is to build the habit and sign up users. The next stages of the roadmap matter far more. EPI launched online payments in Germany at the end of 2025, then in Belgium, with France next, and in-store payments are slated to follow. That is where Wero will face a question it has not yet had to answer: persuading merchants to add one more button to checkout, with pricing and dispute handling that will be measured against cards.
N26 arrives at that point with a multi-country customer base already used to instant transfers, in two of the markets that matter most for Wero. Above all, its arrival is a reminder that the contest over payment addressing is won first on the number of reachable accounts, and only then on the quality of the interface.