Financial services innovator Airwallex has become a Principal Member of the EPI Company (European Payments Initiative), bringing merchants on its platform access to Wero, the pan-European account-to-account (A2A) digital wallet, as a payment method across Europe.
Wero is the digital wallet created by the EPI Company to serve as a pan-European payment solution. According to EPI’s own description, Wero is designed to be available via participating banks’ apps or as a standalone mobile wallet, and to cover multiple use-cases: person-to-person, consumer-to-merchant (online and ultimately in-store), cross-border within Europe, on a real-time (instant payment) basis. In this scenario, funds flow from account to account, leveraging the SEPA instant payment infrastructure rather than relying solely on card networks.
As a global financial platform serving modern businesses, Airwallex can integrate Wero into its merchant offering, meaning European merchants (and potentially cross-border merchants) gain a new payment option through a trusted infrastructure.
EPI partnership creates mutual value for Airwallex’s merchant base, that receives simplified payment processing with fewer intermediaries, more seamless cross-border flows and improved checkout experiences, and the fintech company itself, which strengthens its European infrastructure, broadens its payments arsenal, and potentially reduces costs by tapping a payments network optimized for A2A transactions rather than legacy card networks.
Despite a unified economic framework, Europe still faces a fragmented payments environment. The region is home to many national schemes, different wallets and transfer options, which do not always communicate well with one another, often leading to various cross-border payment frictions. The EPI initiative, and tools such as Wero, aim to create a unified backbone for payments across countries, reducing complexity and cost, improving efficiency, and strengthening European payment sovereignty and resilience.
Therefore, Airwallex’s move of bringing Wero to its merchant base also aligns with the broader goal of a more efficient, interoperable, and pan-European payment infrastructure.
