ING board member Pinar Abay is urging European banks to accelerate efforts and demonstrate greater flexibility in the development of the unified payment system, Wero. In an interview with the economics magazine “Capital” on Wednesday, Abay stated that “everyone must be prepared to make some sacrifices on the path to a unified payment system.
Abay’s comments come as ING’s German subsidiary prepares to roll out Wero to its ten million customers this month. As a member of the ING Group’s board responsible for retail banking, Abay also sits on the board of the European Payment Initiative (EPI), the organization behind Wero. Currently, the system is only available in Germany, Belgium and France, with discussions ongoing with Austria.
Abay contends this is insufficient given the current global landscape. “Europe needs to consider how to achieve a European dimension in various areas of banking” she said. “For us in Europe, it’s a risk not to have our own cross-border payment system. Given what’s happening in the world, we need to act quickly.
The EPI has experienced some attrition, with several banks withdrawing after the system’s initial launch. Abay is calling on the industry to prioritize collaboration and pragmatism instead. “Europe sometimes makes the mistake that everyone has an opinion on the solution. This means it takes a very long time for a system to emerge and be scalable”. She proposes the industry instead “pursue what already works in the market in order to build a sovereign European payment system.
Abay believes a new momentum is building. “I hope that we can find a path to collaboration with other markets such as Italy, Spain and other countries. If you combine everything that already exists, a large part of Europe will be covered”.
