EuroPA and EPI start a collaboration to strengthen European autonomy in payments

Rome, 23 June 2025 — The EuroPA alliance (European Payments Alliance) — represented by BANCOMAT, Bizum, MB WAY (SIBS) and Vipps MobilePay — and EPI Company (EPI) have announced the start of a cooperation aimed at developing solutions capable of responding quickly to the challenge of European sovereignty in payments, with particular reference to cross-border transactions. The goal is to allow European citizens to send and receive money in a simple and secure way throughout Europe, for the benefit of consumers and merchants.

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The collaboration between EuroPa and EPI stems from a shared vision: to develop a joint solution that enhances the widespread adoption and already existing capacities of each participant, through greater interconnection. The intent is to cover all use cases — from payments between individuals to commercial ones, both online and in stores — in the markets where the participating solutions are present. The current study should be completed by the end of summer.

The agreement initially involves 15 European countries, which represent a total of more than 382 million inhabitants (84% of the population of the European Union and Norway), allowing them to continue using their preferred digital payment solutions both locally and pan-European, and offering a scalable approach even to markets not currently covered. The interconnection between existing solutions represents a rapid path to European sovereignty and autonomy, in line with the objectives shared by the European Commission and the Eurosystem. An approach based on the best European solutions and their diversity, which will continue to promote innovation, efficiency and ease of use for everyone.

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Who is Europe

EuroPA (European Payments Alliance) is an initiative that brings together the main operators of mobile payment solutions active in their respective European markets. Its mission is to contribute to the construction of a pan-European, sovereign and resilient payment market, through the interoperability between existing solutions, based on SEPA instant payment standards and on the most common mobile solutions in different countries.

Since March 2025, interoperability has been active between users of BANCOMAT, Bizum and MB WAY/SIBS, the three founding solutions. This allows more than 50 million users in Italy, Portugal, Spain and Andorra (customers of 186 financial institutions in Europe) to send and receive money in real time through their respective apps. Recently, Blik (Poland), IRIS (Greece) and Vipps MobilePay (Nordic countries) have also joined the initiative and will be gradually integrated. EuroPA thus confirms its growth trajectory, with the goal of reaching more than 100 million users in 10 European countries, thanks to fully operational infrastructures and already consolidated brands.

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Who is EPI

EPI Company (European Payments Initiative) was created with the objective of ending the fragmentation of payments and the dependence on international schemes in Europe.

Owned by 16 major European banks and payment service operators, EPI is developing a unified mobile payment solution for all European citizens: Wero, designed to respond to all everyday situations, including advanced features such as subscriptions and pre-authorizations.

With Wero, merchants will be able to regain control and power over their payment systems, thanks to a fair cost model — made possible by the collaborative nature of the project — and to a simplified one-stop integration, supported by a native digital SaaS architecture. Wero's core markets (France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) account for 64% of European transactions. Wero will allow 100 million European consumers to make any type of retail payment through a sovereign digital wallet, which will also include numerous value-added services.

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