Europe is entering a new phase of account‑to‑account payments. National schemes like BLIK, Bizum and iDEAL work extremely well at home, but historically have not travelled across borders. Now regulators and banks want real alternatives to global card networks and Big Tech wallets, forcing a strategic choice: should Europe scale through one unified wallet or through interoperability between existing ones? Wero and EuroPA represent these two competing answers.
While both have different strategies, they are also partnering (announced in 2025) driven by a common goal, to explore a joint solution that uses the distribution and capabilities of each.
This post explains:
- What Wero and EuroPA are building
- Who is behind each initiative.
- How the underlying mechanisms work (SEPA Instant, phone‑number aliases, wallets).
- How pilots like BLIK–Bizum–MB WAY fit into a broader European strategy.
Why Europe is reinventing payments
Before diving into each initiative, let’s understand the context.
Europe already has strong national mobile payment schemes. Poland has BLIK; Spain has Bizum; Portugal has MB Way; Italy has Bancomat Pay; the Nordics have Vipps MobilePay. These systems are widely used domestically but historically did not interoperate well across borders.
All are the technological UX layer on top of local banking and clearing rails. In the case of Blik, its Elixir and Express Elixir.
But EU is not a monolith. Domestic wallets and payment schemes still face the omnipresent challenge of how to make such payments work across the EU area.
At the same time, European banks and policymakers increasingly support alternatives to global card networks and international wallets. Instant SEPA payments make this technically possible. The question becomes: how should Europe scale? Through one unified wallet or through interoperability between existing ones?
Wero and EuroPA answer this question in different ways.
Wero: A Pan European Wallet Built on Instant Payments
What Wero is trying to achieve
Wero is the wallet created by the European Payments Initiative. Its goal is ambitious: create a unified bank backed payment experience that works across multiple European countries.
The long term ambition is broad:
- peer to peer transfers
- e-commerce payments
- in-store payments
- recurring and subscription flows
Instead of connecting existing schemes, Wero attempts to build a single scheme with common rules and a consistent user experience.
Its goal is to provide a “sovereign” pan‑European alternative to US‑dominated card schemes and Big Tech wallets, built directly on SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst).
Who is involved
Wero is backed by a consortium of European banks participating in the European Payments Initiative. Early rollouts focus on Belgium, France and Germany, with additional banks and countries expected over time.
Wero acts as a new payment brand and framework layered on top of participating banks.
It also includes processors such as Nexi and Worldline.
How Wero works technically
Wero uses SEPA Instant Credit Transfer as its settlement rail. The core architecture looks like this:
- User/wallet layer
- Wero app (standalone) or Wero module embedded inside participating bank apps.
- Users link an IBAN account and verify via strong customer authentication (SCA) from their bank.
- EPI central services (orchestration) (”Scheme”)
- Maintain mappings between aliases (phone numbers, emails, QR codes) and IBANs.
- Route payment requests to the correct bank and enforce scheme rules and limits.
- Rail layer (SEPA Instant + ISO 20022)
- For each transaction, the payer’s bank sends an ISO 20022 SCT Inst payment message to the payee’s bank.
- Settlement is near real‑time (under 10 seconds) and available 24/7/365.
The wallet layer handles discovery, confirmation flows and scheme logic. The money movement happens via instant bank transfers.
This separation is important: Wero is not a new payment rail; it is an overlay network.
Roll‑out phases and pilots
Wero is rolling out in three main phases.
- P2P phase (2024)
- Introduced as a peer‑to‑peer wallet in Germany, France and Belgium.
- Users send money to contacts via phone number in seconds.
- E‑commerce phase (2025–2026)
- Worldline and others began enabling Wero as an online payment method for merchants in Germany and Belgium from summer 2025.
- Example pilot: German e‑commerce merchants offer Wero as a checkout option; users pay from their bank account, merchants receive funds instantly.
- In‑store & value‑added services (from 2026)
- POS usage via QR codes or NFC at terminals, recurring payments (e.g. subscriptions), and potentially BNPL‑style instalments and loyalty integration.
BLIK: A National Wallet Expanding Through Interoperability
What BLIK is
BLIK began as a Polish mobile payment system built around a simple idea: generate a short lived code inside your banking app and confirm the payment there. Over time, BLIK expanded into multiple channels including:
- online checkout
- peer to peer transfers
- ATM withdrawals
- contactless NFC payments
It has become one of the most successful domestic payment schemes in Europe. By 2024 BLIK had ~17 million active users and processed over 2.4 billion transactions annually, with strong growth across e‑commerce, in‑store and P2P. Its new goal is to export this model beyond Poland, initially into Central and Eastern Europe.
BLIK isnt an isolated example. Bizum in Spain, Vipps in Nordics, MBWAY in Portugal have immense popularity and adoption in their respective nations. We’ll take a deeper look at EuroPA which is the alliance between these mobile payment schemes.
Who is involved
BLIK is operated by Polish Standard Payment, with participation from major Polish banks. Distribution happens directly through banking apps, which gives it a strong trust and adoption advantage.
How BLIK works technically
The core mechanism revolves around a six digit code:
- The user generates a temporary code in their banking app.
- The code is entered at checkout or terminal.
- The banking app prompts the user to confirm the payment.
- The scheme routes authorization between participating banks.
The code is not the payment itself; it is a trigger for bank authentication and payment initiation.
Settlement layer: Express Elixir and Elixir
Unlike Wero, which is explicitly building on SEPA Instant, BLIK primarily relies on domestic rails such as Express Elixir for instant transfers, alongside other bank integrations depending on the use case.
Express Elixir enables instant transfers initiated through mobile banking and BLIK, processing transfers in real time between participating banks.
This means BLIK is best understood as a payment scheme and user experience layer sitting on top of local clearing rails, rather than a standalone payment network.
This distinction matters because it explains why BLIK scaled quickly domestically: it leveraged existing bank infrastructure instead of building new rails.
The architecture looks like this:
- Bank app integration
- Each participating bank embeds BLIK functionality directly in its mobile banking app.
- There is no separate “BLIK wallet” app; BLIK is a capability of the bank app.
- Code generation and aliasing
- When the user taps BLIK, the app generates a short‑lived 6‑digit code, valid for ~2 minutes.
- For P2P, BLIK also supports phone‑number aliases for “send‑to‑mobile” transfers, mapping phone numbers to accounts.
- Payment rail layer
- Behind the scenes, BLIK orchestrates instant account transfers between Polish banks’ real‑time payment systems.
BLIK expanding beyond Poland: cross scheme P2P
BLIK recently started testing cross border peer to peer payments with other European schemes such as Bizum and MB Way. These pilots allow users to send money to a phone number even if the recipient belongs to another system.
Example pilot scenario:
- A Spanish Bizum user sends funds to a Polish BLIK user using a phone number.
- The sending scheme resolves the destination network.
- The receiving bank prompts the recipient through the local BLIK interface.
This approach does not create a new wallet. It links existing ones.
These pilots run under the EuroPA umbrella (discussed below), showing how BLIK’s national architecture can plug into a European cross‑border mesh without changing the local UX.
EuroPA: The Federation Model for European Payments
What EuroPA is
EuroPA (European Payments Alliance) is an interoperability initiative launched by members of EMPSA (European Mobile Payment Systems Association) designed to connect national mobile payment schemes across Europe.
The idea is simple: keep local apps and brands, but make them work across borders. EuroPA’s mission is to make these systems mutually interoperable for instant cross‑border payments, using SEPA standards and local apps.
Members of EuroPA
Key participants include:
- BLIK from Poland
- Bizum from Spain
- MB Way from Portugal
- Bancomat Pay from Italy
- Vipps MobilePay from the Nordic region
Each member remains independent. EuroPA provides coordination and technical interoperability.
How EuroPA works technically
EuroPA operates as a routing and interoperability layer. It standardises messaging and connectivity but does not standardise user experience.
EuroPA’s design is similar in spirit to Wero’s use of SEPA Instant, but instead of creating a new wallet, it connects existing local wallets.
The architecture looks like this:
- Alias / Look-up layer
- Each scheme (Bizum, MB WAY, BANCOMAT Pay, BLIK, Vipps MobilePay) maintains its own phone‑number → IBAN mappings.
- When a user sends money to an international phone number, it is queried with inter-scheme routing and directory exchanges to resolve the alias.
- Authentication happens inside the user’s local banking app.
- Instant payment rails handle the settlement.
- The underlying transaction is a SEPA Instant Credit Transfer in euros, complying with EU SCT Inst standards and operating 24/7.
- User experience
- Sender uses their familiar national app (Bizum, MB WAY, BANCOMAT Pay, BLIK).
- Recipient receives funds in their home app/bank, often seeing it as a familiar domestic instant transfer.
EuroPA pilots and tests
EuroPA is currently doing pilots and interoperability tests:
- Italy–Spain–Portugal live interoperability (2025)
- In March 2025, BANCOMAT Pay, Bizum and MB WAY switched on cross‑border instant P2P so users in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Andorra can send money to each other by phone number.
- Example: an MB WAY user in Lisbon sends €30 to a friend’s Spanish phone number; the money reaches the Bizum account in seconds.
- BLIK’s euro pilots with Bizum and MB WAY (2025–2026)
- BLIK joined EuroPA in mid‑2025 and started pilots to test euro transfers between Poland and Spain/Portugal, again using phone‑number aliases and SCT Inst.
- Example: a Bizum user sends euros to a Polish BLIK user’s phone; the transfer is instant and appears in the Polish bank account via BLIK.
These tests focus on making cross border transfers feel identical to domestic ones.
Two Strategies for European Payments
Wero and EuroPA are often discussed together because they represent opposite architectural approaches.
Wero strategy: one scheme across Europe
- Build a single wallet and governance model.
- Offer a consistent checkout experience.
- Expand gradually across markets.
- Focus on full commerce acceptance.
EuroPA strategy: federation of national champions
- Connect existing wallets rather than replace them.
- Preserve local user experience.
- Scale quickly by leveraging established user bases.
- Start with peer to peer interoperability.
Neither approach is inherently superior. Each solves a different problem.
Comparison Table
Dimension | Wero | BLIK | EuroPA |
Core idea | Pan European wallet | National mobile payment scheme | Interoperability network |
Governance | Centralised scheme | Domestic governance | Federated alliance |
Settlement rail | SEPA Instant | Bank integrations and instant payments | SEPA Instant |
UX approach | Unified wallet experience | Banking app driven | Local apps remain unchanged |
Geography | Multi country rollout | Poland first | Cross border federation |
Pilot examples | P2P launches in Germany and France; early commerce tests | Cross border tests with Bizum and MB Way | Interoperability pilots Spain to Poland |
Strategic goal | Replace fragmentation across EU | Dominate domestic usage and expand to other regions with similar model | Connect fragmented ecosystems across EU |
Conclusion: Europe’s Payment Future May Be Hybrid
Wero, BLIK and EuroPA represent a competing but potentially complementary visions.
Wero attempts to standardise Europe under one scheme. EuroPA attempts to link existing national systems without replacing them.
BLIK sits at the intersection: a strong domestic network that is now becoming a node in a broader European mesh.
The most likely outcome is not a single winner. Europe may evolve toward a hybrid model where:
- National champions continue to dominate domestically.
- Interoperability frameworks connect them across borders.
- Pan European schemes provide consistent commerce acceptance.
Instant payments have shifted the technical foundation. The remaining challenge is governance, distribution and user trust- before the ultimate question: how to make money.
This is also a space where card schemes like Visa and Mastercard are competing in. Wallets and instant payments are an interesting landscape for such partnerships and competing solutions to evolve.
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