ACI Worldwide and EPI to Power Instant Payments in Europe

WHY THIS MATTERS: The integration of the Wero digital wallet into a major global payments orchestration platform represents a critical inflection point for European financial interoperability. For years, the fragmentation of national payment rails has hindered the creation of a truly frictionless Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). By leveraging established instant payment infrastructure, this move signals a broader shift from siloed, legacy systems toward a unified, real-time ecosystem capable of competing with global card schemes. For merchants and financial institutions, this is not merely a technical update; it is a strategic expansion of their payment acceptance capabilities. As regulatory pressure mounts under the new EU Instant Payments Regulation, the ability to seamlessly offer account-to-account solutions will become a non-negotiable differentiator for those seeking to remain competitive in an increasingly digital-first economy.

ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), an original innovator in global payments technology, has joined the European Payments Initiative (EPI) as a principal member and will integrate EPI’s Wero wallet solution onto ACI’s best-in-class Payments Orchestration Platform. Through this strategic collaboration, merchants and financial intermediaries across Europe will be able to offer Wero as a new payment method to consumers and businesses.

Wero is a pan-European digital wallet solution that runs on SEPA instant payment rails. It aims to unify and streamline payments across Europe, offering peer-to-peer transfers, e-commerce and point-of-sale purchases, alongside other added-value services. Launched in 2024 by EPI, founded by a consortium of 16 European banks and financial services companies, Wero currently offers instant account-to-account payments to consumers in Belgium, France and Germany.

EPI plans to expand the service across Europe to include Luxembourg and the Netherlands in the coming months and continues to explore opportunities in other countries. Since the fall of 2025, consumers in Germany and now Belgium are able to pay online with their Wero digital wallet, with additional services, including subscriptions, planned to launch in the coming years. French consumers will be benefiting from similar services in fall this year, while in-store payment options are foreseen to be launched in 2027.

Wero is expected to drive the consumer adoption of instant payments and an increase in instant payments volumes across Europe. The EU Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) came into effect in January 2025, requiring all banks and payment service providers (PSPs) in the Eurozone to be able to receive and send instant payments to customers. In addition to the integration of Wero onto ACI’s Payments Orchestration Platform, ACI powers instant payments rails across Europe, offering banks and PSPs direct instant payment connectivity and payments orchestration.

According to ACI’s most recent Prime Time for Real-Time report, instant payment transactions in Europe are expected to increase from 17.2 billion in 2023 to 38.6 billion in 2028 and are forecast to account for 13% of all electronic payments in Europe by 2028, up from 8% in 2023.

“We are excited to announce our strategic partnership with EPI to make Wero a success across Europe,” commented Nick Craig, head of Europe, ACI Worldwide. “This collaboration leverages ACI’s advanced instant payment processing capabilities to address the fragmentation of payment methods in Europe, providing a unified solution which enables a seamless, secure and efficient payment experience for consumers and merchants. Wero will be an important addition to ACI’s best-in-class Payments Orchestration Platform, which has the industry’s widest reach of acquirers and APMs.”

“Seeing ACI joining EPI members’ ranks is a new step towards massive availability of Wero across our core markets and beyond. Through the integration onto ACI’s platform, all their merchants and their customers will be able to integrate Wero as a new payment solution, empowering their business and Europe’s resilience at large. Together, we are helping accelerate the development of a more connected, innovative and resilient European payments ecosystem,” said Martina Weimert, CEO of EPI.

ACI currently powers 26 domestic and pan-regional instant payment schemes across six continents, including 11 central infrastructures, providing solutions to central banks, participant banks, fintechs and other PSPs. Globally, ACI covers approximately one-third of the countries that offer instant payment services, reaching about 3 billion people served by various organizations, including central governments, payment networks, banks, financial institutions and fintech companies.

FF NEWS TAKE: This partnership is a significant needle-mover, effectively bridging the gap between national ambition and global scale. ACI’s massive reach acts as the ideal force multiplier for Wero’s adoption. The industry must now watch for the speed of merchant uptake; if adoption mirrors the enthusiasm seen in early pilot markets, we are looking at the foundational architecture for Europe’s next generation of everyday consumer finance.