Wero, Europe’s bank-backed account-to-account payment method, signed up two partners from outside its founding circle in the same week. German neobank N26 switched Wero on in its app for eligible customers in Germany and France on August 11, 2026. Two days later, on August 13, payment service provider finby, formerly TrustPay, opened Wero to its online merchants.
Neither company was part of the group that built the scheme. N26 is not a shareholder in the European Payments Initiative (EPI), the company behind Wero, and finby does not belong to any of its founding banking groups. That gives Wero a distributor with no stake in EPI and an acceptance point from outside its home markets. Spreading beyond the circle that funded it is how a payment scheme normally gets to national scale. None of the three companies put a number on the volumes involved.
EPI launched Wero in 2024. The company is owned by 18 European banks and payment providers, including BNP Paribas, BPCE, Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel, La Banque Postale, Société Générale, Deutsche Bank, ING, KBC, Rabobank, Nexi, and Worldline. Wero runs on SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) and lets users pay with a phone number or email address instead of an IBAN. Belgium, France, and Germany are its three home markets.
N26 customers can now pay users at other banks
N26 holds a German banking license and operates in 24 markets. It already offered transfers without an IBAN, but only between its own customers. Wero extends that to accounts at every other connected institution. Funds arrive in under 10 seconds, around the clock, over SEPA instant payment rails. “Instant payments without an IBAN have been a core N26 feature since our inception,” said Daniel Lappas, N26’s chief product and business officer. “With Wero, we’re extending this seamless experience to the broader European banking ecosystem.” N26 signed its membership agreement in December 2025, with a launch planned for the second half of 2026 in Germany, France, and the Netherlands.
finby adds Wero at online checkout
finby accepts payments for online merchants in several European countries and supports a wide range of local payment methods. With Wero, those merchants can take payments debited directly from the buyer’s bank account, outside the card networks. The impact is expected first in Belgium, France, and Germany, where the wallet already has a user base. finby CEO David Rintel called the move a step toward “a more unified European payments ecosystem,” while EPI CEO Martina Weimert said it helps build a “competitive European payment solution.”
A payment scheme needs both payers and merchants
A payment scheme only works when both sides grow together. The issuing side puts the payment method in the payer’s hands. The acceptance side lets merchants take it. Progress on one side alone adds no payments: users have nowhere to spend, and merchants see no one paying.
| Layer | Role | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| Issuing and distribution | Puts the payment method in the payer’s hands | N26 switches on Wero in its app in Germany and France |
| Acceptance | Lets the merchant take the payment | finby offers Wero to its online merchants |
| Clearing and settlement | Moves funds from one account to another | SEPA Instant Credit Transfer, completed in under 10 seconds |
In-store payments and new markets are still ahead
- In-store payments, the last stage of EPI’s published roadmap, after person-to-person payments and e-commerce.
- Geographic reach, currently three markets, with the Netherlands and Luxembourg named as the next ones.
- Acceptance density, the only way for users to find Wero where they actually shop.
- Additional services announced by EPI, from installment payments to digital identity, which are still at the project stage.
From its launch in 2020, EPI was pitched as Europe’s answer to its dependence on Visa and Mastercard , whose acceptance networks took decades to build. That is the test Wero faces. The two August 2026 announcements add one bank and one PSP, with no usage data to go with them.