The Federal Ministry of Finance, headed by Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD), welcomes projects like the payment service “Wero”.
However, the ministry says it does not see a mandate to adopt Wero as a payment service.
A spokesperson for the ministry told reporters on Thursday that the federal government generally supports initiatives that strengthen European autonomy and resilience in payment systems. “Ultimately, it is up to merchants to decide whether they accept payments through Wero” the spokesperson added.
Given the “clear trend towards digital payment” the ministry emphasized that citizens should have innovative European solutions available to them so they can make cross‑border digital payments across Europe.
Wero is operated by the privately run European Payments Initiative, a consortium of banks from Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. “According to our information, several banks already offer Wero as a payment option for person‑to‑person transactions in Germany, and there are early companies that are accepting Wero online in Germany or preparing to integrate it” the spokesperson said. “In physical retail, the European Payments Initiative plans to launch Wero this year”.