Global real-time payments software leader ACI Worldwide has officially joined the European Payments Initiative (EPI) as a principal member, announcing a strategic collaboration to integrate EPI’s Wero digital wallet solution onto its Payments Orchestration Platform. Running directly on SEPA instant payment rails, Wero is a pan-European account-to-account wallet engineered to unify highly fragmented regional payment landscapes by enabling seamless peer-to-peer transfers, e-commerce transactions, and point-of-sale purchases without costly intermediary overhead. The expansion supports compliance with the EU’s 2025 Instant Payments Regulation, which demands widespread instant payment accessibility across Eurozone financial institutions. Highlighting the infrastructure-level benefits of this deployment, ACI Worldwide noted that “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.
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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.” Ultimately, the partnership positions merchants and financial intermediaries to tap into a rapidly expanding digital market, driving the acceleration of instant transaction volumes which are projected to account for 13% of all electronic payments across Europe by 2028. Welcoming the move, Martina Weimert, CEO of EPI, stated: “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.”