Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 7, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Five Belgian banks join the European Payments Initiative to expand the Wero wallet, aiming to challenge Visa and Mastercard's dominance.
(Reuters) -Five Belgian banks - Argenta, Bank Van Breda, Beobank, Crelan and vdk bank - said on Monday that they were joining the European Payments Initiative and that they would roll out the EPI's digital wallet Wero to their customers next year.
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT:
The EPI was set up by European banks in a bid to rival the dominance of U.S. companies Visa and Mastercard.
EPI has been hit in the past by some other banks leaving its network.
KEY QUOTES:
"By integrating Wero into our offering from 2026, we will empower our clients – entrepreneurs and liberal professions - with a fast, secure, and intuitive way to manage their payments which is fully aligned with their daily needs," said Bank Van Breda CEO Dirk Wouters.
BY THE NUMBERS:
According to the EPI, the Wero digital wallet it launched last year already has 40 million registered users across Belgium, France, and Germany.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
The EPI was set up by European banks to rival the dominance of U.S. companies Visa and Mastercard.
Five Belgian banks - Argenta, Bank Van Breda, Beobank, Crelan, and vdk bank - are joining the EPI.
According to the EPI, the Wero digital wallet has 40 million registered users across Belgium, France, and Germany.
Wero is expected to be integrated into the banks' offerings starting in 2026.
The EPI has been hit in the past by some other banks leaving its network.
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