43 Million Users in 12 Months: How Wero Is Building Europe’s Answer to Visa and Mastercard

Wero has signed 43.5 million users in its first year and is launching e-commerce payments in 2026. Combined with the digital euro vote and a new euro stablecoin, Europe’s breakup with Visa and Mastercard is accelerating.” (210 chars — trim to:)

“Wero has 43.5 million users after one year. E-commerce payments launch in 2026, iDEAL is migrating, and the European Parliament just backed the digital euro. Europe’s payments breakup with Visa and Mastercard is real.” (198 chars)

Quick Answer: Europe’s push to break its dependence on Visa and Mastercard is accelerating on three fronts. Wero, the pan-European digital wallet backed by 16 banks, has reached 43.5 million registered users and processed over €7.5 billion in transfers in its first year. E-commerce payments go live in 2026. In parallel, the European Parliament voted on 10 February to back the digital euro for a 2029 launch, and a consortium of 11 European banks is building a euro-backed stablecoin. Together, these initiatives represent the most coordinated challenge to US payments dominance in decades.

When EBM first reported on Europe’s $24 trillion breakup with Visa and Mastercard, the question was whether the ambition could translate into adoption. The early data suggests it can.

Wero, the digital wallet built by the European Payments Initiative, has signed up 43.5 million users across Germany, France and Belgium in its first twelve months of operation. More than 100 million transactions have been processed, totalling over €7.5 billion in transfers. For a system that launched in mid-2024 with peer-to-peer payments only, those figures represent meaningful traction — not a pilot, but a payments network building real scale.

The next twelve months will determine whether Wero can move from person-to-person transfers into the far larger and more commercially significant world of online shopping and in-store payments.

E-Commerce Is the Real Test

Peer-to-peer transfers prove the technology works. But the revenue — and the threat to Visa and Mastercard — sits in e-commerce and point-of-sale transactions. That is where the card networks earn their fees, and where European merchants pay the toll.

Wero’s e-commerce functionality launched in Germany at the end of 2025 and is rolling out across Belgium and France in 2026. The first online retailers are already live. In France, Air France, E.Leclerc, Orange, Veepee and Dott have signed agreements to accept Wero payments. The French government’s tax authority, the DGFIP, has also announced plans to integrate Wero as a payment method for public services — a signal of institutional confidence that goes beyond the private sector.

NFC-enabled point-of-sale payments — allowing consumers to tap and pay in physical shops — are scheduled for 2026 and 2027. If Wero can deliver a consumer experience comparable to Apple Pay or contactless card payments, it will compete directly with the infrastructure that underpins Visa and Mastercard’s European revenues.

The Network Is Expanding

Two new countries join in 2026. Luxembourg goes live in June. In the Netherlands, the migration from iDEAL — the country’s dominant online payment system — to Wero begins with a co-branding phase in early 2026 and is expected to be fully complete by the end of 2027. That means every Dutch merchant currently accepting iDEAL will need to transition to Wero, effectively delivering an entire national payments market to the European system.

The partnership between EPI and the EuroPA Alliance, signed in late 2025, extends Wero’s potential reach to 15 countries and more than 382 million people. Revolut joined EPI in June 2025, bringing its massive European customer base into the network. N26 signed in December 2025, planning to offer Wero in Germany, France and the Netherlands by the second half of 2026. Austrian banks have also signalled support, with Payment Services Austria confirming backing for the initiative.

This matters because payments networks live or die on scale. Merchants accept payment methods that consumers carry. Consumers adopt methods that merchants accept. Breaking the Visa-Mastercard loop requires reaching a critical mass of both — which is precisely why Europe’s fintechs have been building alternative payment rails for years.

Three Fronts, One Strategy

What makes this moment different from previous European attempts at payments independence is the convergence of three parallel initiatives.

First, Wero is delivering commercial-grade infrastructure with real users and real transactions. Second, the European Parliament voted on 10 February to back the digital euro — a state-backed central bank digital currency targeting a 2029 launch. Third, a consortium of 11 European banks is developing a euro-backed stablecoin to compete with dollar-denominated tokens in the digital asset space.

Each addresses a different layer of the payments stack. Wero targets everyday consumer and merchant transactions. The digital euro provides a public, sovereign settlement layer. The stablecoin competes in cross-border and crypto-native markets. Together, they represent the most coordinated effort to build European-owned financial infrastructure since the creation of SEPA.

The Risks Haven’t Disappeared

Sceptics point to Europe’s long history of fragmented payments initiatives that promised scale but never delivered. Wero must still prove it can convert 43 million peer-to-peer users into habitual e-commerce and in-store customers. The iDEAL migration in the Netherlands will be a critical test — forced transitions create friction, and friction creates backlash.

There is also the competitive reality. Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal are deeply embedded in European consumer behaviour. Convincing shoppers to switch to a less familiar system requires not just functionality but a meaningfully better experience — lower fees, faster settlement, stronger consumer protections.

And the broader European payments landscape remains fragmented. Southern and Eastern European markets are largely absent from Wero’s current roadmap. Until the system reaches Spain, Italy, Poland and the Nordics, it remains a Western European project with continental ambitions.

The Direction Is Clear

None of this is guaranteed to succeed. But the trajectory has shifted. A year ago, Europe’s payments sovereignty agenda was a policy discussion. Today, it has 43.5 million users, €7.5 billion in transfers, parliamentary backing for a digital currency and a growing coalition of banks, fintechs and governments pulling in the same direction.

The breakup with Visa and Mastercard has not happened. But the alternative infrastructure is no longer theoretical. It is live, it is growing, and in 2026, it enters the market that actually matters: the one where merchants and consumers spend money.

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