Deutsche Bank jumps on the Wero bandwagon

Deutsche Bank is now offering customers the full payment functionality with the payment service Wero. The company is thus moving the pilot phase at Postbank to regular operations and extending it to Deutsche Bank as well.

The company announced this in a statement. The company writes: “Since the beginning of the week, customers of both banks have been able to send and receive money in real-time to family and friends across Europe with Wero and pay in participating online shops. Postbank customers, who have already been able to transfer money to personal contacts with Wero since November 2024, have now also been enabled for the e-commerce function.”

Wero is now to be usable with its “full range of services” at Deutsche Bank and Postbank. Deutsche Bank sees Wero as a crucial “step towards a unified European payment landscape” that enables private and e-commerce payments across national borders. For Wero's success, uncomplicated everyday use is important. Therefore, Deutsche Bank is offering Wero not only to private customers but also to European merchants and FinTechs.

Wero is gaining traction in practice

Wero has been available since July 2024 as a result of the merger of European banks and payment service providers under the umbrella of the European Payments Initiative (EPI). Initially, customers of Sparkassen and Volks- und Raiffeisen-Banken could use the service for mobile-to-mobile payments. In November 2024, Postbank was added. At the beginning of December this year, the smartphone bank N26 also announced its integration with the Wero payment solution.

However, the increasing support from banks is only one side of payment transactions – what good is a payment system that customers cannot use to purchase goods or services anywhere. However, Wero, which is positioned as a PayPal alternative, has been introduced at the first merchants as a payment option since this autumn. Since the beginning of November, event enthusiasts have been able to pay for concert tickets with Wero at the provider CTS Eventim, for example. However, the online shopping function is apparently still restricted at some banks: while customers of Sparkassen and VR-Banken can settle their bills with Wero there, customers of Norisbank, BW Bank, and ING Germany, as well as Deutsche Bank until recently, receive an error message during the payment process. With the support of Wero's full functionality at Deutsche Bank and Postbank, which are now also enabled for e-commerce, no more errors should occur.

The payment process with Wero is intended to be simple and secure. After clicking "Pay," shops display a QR code that interested buyers can scan, for example, with the Sparkassen app. Payment is confirmed in the app with facial recognition or fingerprint, and that's it. This even seems more convenient than, for example, payment via PayPal. By the end of the year, another 150 merchants with their online shops are expected to join CTS Eventim and integrate Wero payments.

(dmk)