The European Payments Initiative, a bank-backed venture that was initally set up to build a rival to Mastercard and Visa in Europe, has selected 'wero' as the commercial name for its forthcoming digital wallet solution.
The wero digital wallet will be rolled out in phases, initially to support account-to-account based instant P2P and consumer-to-business payments, followed by online and mobile shopping payments and then point-of-sale payments.
The selection of the brand name comes after the EPI in April moved to acquire Dutch payment scheme iDeal and Payconiq, the mobile payments app supported by a host of Belgian and Dutch banks. Member banks backing the scheme include ABN Amro, Belfius, BFCM, BNP Paribas, BPCE, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, DSGV, DZ Bank ING, KBC, La Banque Postale, Rabobank, Société Générale, with added support from Nexi and Worldline.
Martina Weimert, the CEO of EPI, says of the new brand: "In a market filled with predictable 'pay’ brand names, wero stood out from a list of 238 candidate names we considered since it combines different elements which we stand for: the collective European character of the 'we' and a pronunciation close to the word 'Euro'. Finally, wero is close to 'vero' meaning 'true' in Latin-based languages. I personally find it catchy with its simple yet memorable structure. The short and snappy sound resonates with the fast-paced nature of digital transactions.”
She says the joint venture is working towards launching wero by mid-2024 in Belgium, France and Germany, followed by the Netherlands, and aims to extend to other countries in the years to come.