From Apple Pay to Klarna, from PayPal to Visa: when shopping online, consumers can usually choose between different payment methods. Now Wero is joining the party.
Wero, a payment service created by the European Banking Federation, will be available for online purchases this fall. This was announced by the Bavarian Savings Banks Association (SVB) in Munich. From 2026 or 2027, customers will most likely also be able to pay with Wero in stores, SVB Vice President Stefan Proßer announced in Munich.
The payment service, which was launched in the summer of 2024 by the European Payment Initiative, is currently available in France, Germany, and Belgium and, like its US competitor Paypal, offers direct mobile payments from person to person. According to Proßer, Wero currently has a total of 43 million users, of which 1.3 million are German and almost 200,000 are customers of Bavarian savings banks.
A call for Europeans to be patriotic.
However, in the coming months, municipal banks are hoping for significant growth, partly thanks to expectations of European consumer patriotism. “Independent and sovereign – that’s what I would like to mention as a keyword,” said Proser, pointing to the growing alienation from the US and the strong presence of US companies in digital payments to date.
The fact that a number of digital payment service providers – and not just US companies – are already operating in e-commerce does not seem to be a major problem for savings banks. This is because the costs are very low: “Compared to credit cards or other payment service providers, Wero’s services are 80-75% cheaper,” said Prosser.
The payment service was created by the European Payments Initiative (EPI), an association of several large European banks and banking groups. In Germany, Volksbanken, Deutsche Bank, and Postbank are also participating in addition to savings banks. Another European project being implemented by the European Central Bank, which many commercial banks view with suspicion, is the digital euro, which will not be available for several years.
Lending is on the rise again, but no trend is apparent yet.
Despite the prolonged economic downturn, Bavarian savings banks have had a satisfactory year so far. According to SVB President Matthias Dießl, lending – the main source of income – has increased by more than a quarter (25.9%) this year, albeit from a low base.
Companies have also requested significantly more loans again, and corporate lending has increased by 22.2% to almost €11 billion. However, according to Dießl, this is not proof that the three-year economic downturn is over: “The savings banks are telling us that there are currently no major investments in the future with the idea of ‘I’m going to try something completely new’,” said the SVB president.
(Source: dpa)
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