EPI welcomes Erste Bank Oesterreich as new shareholder

European Payments Initiative (EPI) today announced that Erste Bank Oesterreich will join EPI as a shareholder. With the shareholder support of a leading financial institution, Wero continues to expand its reach and deliver a simple, secure and real-time payment experience for consumers and merchants alike.

With a population of approximately 9 million people, Austria represents a strategic growth market for Wero, supporting its ambition to build a leading pan-European payment solution. The support of Erste Bank Oesterreich will provide a strong foundation for Wero’s market adoption and future growth.

Gerda Holzinger-Burgstaller, CEO Erste Bank Oesterreich: “We have a proven track record in providing our customers with secure and convenient innovations as well as a freedom of choice for their payment solutions. We continue this philosophy by adding Wero to our services, having proven to be a compelling and secure solution. As a shareholder of EPI, we aim to not only provide this solution to our clients, but take also an active role in shaping it.”

About Erste Bank Oesterreich
Erste Bank Oesterreich, the Austrian subsidiary of Erste Group, is the lead institution of the Austrian Sparkassen group (Eng.: saving banks). Together with the 46 regional Sparkassen, it is one of the country’s largest banking groups. For over 200 years, Erste Bank and Sparkassen have been committed to promoting financial well-being for their 4.3 million private customers and small and medium-sized enterprises through a comprehensive range of products and personalised services. The Sparkassen group provides a full range of financial products: from savings accounts, home and consumer loans, investments, current accounts, bank cards, insurance and leasing to pension fund solutions.

About EPI
EPI (or European Payments Initiative) is supported by 18 European banks and payment service providers. Beyond the shareholders, over 50 institutions in Europe are now members of EPI. They have joined forces with a common goal: to offer a unified mobile payment service to all European companies and citizens, Wero.

EPI intends to enable European consumers and merchants to carry out all types of retail transactions simply, via a resolutely sovereign digital wallet. Find out more at epicompany.eu and follow us on LinkedIn.

About Wero
Based on instant account-to-account (A2A) payments, Wero further streamlines payments in Europe by eliminating intermediaries in the payment chain and the associated additional costs. Wero already supports payments between individuals and will shortly unveil payments to professionals (P2Pro).

Wero has been live for P2P payments in Belgium, France, and Germany since 2024, currently serving 55 million users. For retail payments, Wero is live in Germany since the end of 2025 with progressive roll-out in France and Belgium throughout 2026. Major migrations of at least 15 million consumers are also planned for Payconiq in Luxembourg (by 2026) and iDEAL in the Netherlands (by 2027). Point-of-sale payments will also be offered in 2026, as well as value-added services such as integration of merchant loyalty programs and recurring payments and subscription management.