The German Federal Ministry of Finance, led by Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD), welcomes projects such as the payment service “Wero”. However, it does not see a mandate that requires merchants to accept Wero.
A ministry spokesperson said on Thursday that the government generally supports initiatives that strengthen European autonomy and resilience in payment systems. Nonetheless, the choice of whether to accept payments through Wero ultimately remains up to individual merchants.
Given the clear trend toward digital payments, the ministry stresses that citizens should have access to innovative European solutions that allow them to pay digitally across borders throughout the EU.
The Wero payment system is operated by the private European Payments Initiative, a consortium of banks from Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. According to the spokesperson, several banks already offer Wero as a payment option for private-to‑private transactions in Germany, and a handful of companies have begun accepting Wero online or are preparing to integrate it. In physical retail, the European Payments Initiative plans to roll out Wero later this year.
