WERO - General Information

Wero is an account-to-account (A2A) payment method. This means that a payment is made directly from the consumer's bank account to the merchant's bank account, without the involvement of a card network such as Visa or Mastercard.

For Dutch consumers, Wero will eventually form the technology behind iDEAL. This means the familiar payment experience is retained, while the payment method also becomes usable in other European countries.

What is Wero? 

Payments are processed via SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst), allowing transactions to be completed within seconds.

Wero was developed by the European Payments Initiative (EPI), a partnership of major European banks and payment service providers. The initiative aims to make Europe less dependent on international card networks and to create a uniform European payment platform.

Origin and background

After the success of national payment methods such as iDEAL (Netherlands), Bancontact (Belgium), and Girocard (Germany), the need arose for a single European payment solution.

In 2020, the European Payments Initiative (EPI) was founded by a large number of European banks. The goal was to develop a payment network that could be used throughout Europe.

In 2023, EPI acquired the payment brands iDEAL and Payconiq International. This laid the foundation for the further rollout of Wero.

The first version of Wero was launched in Germany, followed by Belgium and France. In the coming years, the service will be expanded to other European countries.

The future of iDEAL

For Dutch consumers, little will change for now.

iDEAL will continue to exist as a trusted payment brand, but will increasingly rely on the Wero platform technically. Ultimately, payments will be processed via the same European infrastructure.

As a result, consumers and merchants benefit from:

• one European payment standard;
• wider acceptance within Europe;
• real-time payments;
• new features that are available in all participating countries.

How does Wero work?

1. During checkout, the consumer selects Wero.
2. The consumer selects their bank or is automatically redirected to their banking app.
3. The payment is confirmed via the bank's trusted authentication.
4. The bank processes the payment via SEPA Instant Credit Transfer.
5. The merchant immediately receives a payment confirmation.

The consumer does not need to manually enter card details or an IBAN.

Features

Providing payment details

Not all banks provide the payer's IBAN during authorization. Some banks only supply this data in the clearing message, while others only make the IBAN available during the settlement process. As a result, it is more difficult to perform advanced fraud detection and risk assessments during authorization.

Different types of payment traffic

Payments via the immediate payment or donation flow

These rates apply to direct payments and donations within low-risk verticals.

Temporary incentives for domestic payments

For direct domestic Wero payments, a temporary discount on processing costs may apply. The discount is automatically applied when the transaction meets the conditions below.

Payments via the advanced flow

The advanced flow is used for other Wero payment routes that are not processed as direct payments. This includes, for example, payment plans where the amount is collected at a later time, periodically, or after a specific event. The rates below apply when the merchant falls within a low-risk vertical and the Wero risk level is Low.

Payments via the High Risk flow

The High Risk flow applies to all Wero payment routes where the merchant is active within a High-Risk MCC code or where the fraud or dispute level has reached the status Exceeded or Excessive (see the Fair Use Policy  (section 13)). In these cases, the Wero risk level is not Low.

MCC List for High Risk 

According to the EPI Rulebook v1.4 (30 June 2026)the following Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) are designated by EPI as High-Risk Merchants:

In addition, the Rulebook determines that a merchant is also designated as a High-Risk Acceptor when it falls under the Excess Fraud Compliance Programme or the Excess Dispute Compliance Programme, regardless of the MCC.

Additional requirements for High-Risk Merchants

For PSPs that want to onboard these merchants, additional obligations apply:

• prior EPI certification before High-Risk Merchants may be accepted;
• additional onboarding and due diligence procedures;
• more intensive monitoring for fraud and disputes.

Important for marketplaces

High-Risk Merchants may not be offered via a Marketplace within the EPI scheme.

Clearing & Settlement Risks

Although Wero uses Instant Payments (SCT Inst), in exceptional situations a payment may still not be settled automatically. This is called a clearing risk. The payment is then authorized, but the final settlement between the PSPs involved has not been completed successfully.

How does a clearing risk arise?

With a Wero payment, processing takes place in several steps:

1. The consumer authorizes the payment.
2. The merchant submits a capture via PAY. as PSP (or via autocapture)
3. The settlement is carried out via an SCT Inst transfer between the banks involved.
4. If this settlement fails, EPI and the banks involved automatically attempt to resolve it.

In almost all cases, the payment is still processed successfully. Only when all automatic recovery attempts fail does the payment remain unsettled.

What does this mean for merchants?

For merchants, the risk is very limited. A clearing issue occurs between the PSPs involved, not between the merchant and the consumer.

When an exceptional situation occurs:

• PAY. as PSP investigates the cause;
• PAY. contacts the counterparty if necessary;
• the settlement is still handled manually according to EPI's procedures;
• the merchant usually does not need to take any action themselves.

How is the risk resolved?

EPI has an official Manual Claiming Settlement Procedure in place as a last resort. When automatic recovery mechanisms do not provide a solution, the PSPs involved contact each other directly to:

• determine that the payment should indeed have been settled;
• handle the settlement outside the EPI platform;
• then correctly update the administration and reconciliation.

Passing on the funds via the Account-to-Account scheme

Impact on the merchant

In practice, clearing risks occur only very rarely. Most disruptions are resolved automatically before the merchant notices anything.

Should an exceptional situation occur, PAY. as PSP takes care of the communication with the other bank involved and monitors the further handling until the payment has been processed correctly. The merchant does not need to contact other parties themselves for this.

 

Why choose Wero via Pay.nl?

• One European payment method for multiple countries.

• Real-time account-to-account payments.

• Secure authentication via the consumer's bank.

• Support for multiple refunds.

• Ready for the future of European payments.

• Seamless transition from iDEAL to Wero without additional integration.