BPCE extends Wero to online payments; the bank wants to move away from the card as an automatic reflex

Things are changing in the digital wallets of the French. Wero, already known for peer-to-peer transfers since replacing Paylib between friends in 2025, is now entering the most mundane and crucial moment: online payments. The BPCE group (Banque Populaire and Caisse d'Épargne) has announced the launch of its first e-commerce transactions, with a simple promise: paying for purchases without taking out your bank card, directly from your account.

In practice, the user validates the payment directly from their banking app, using a direct, "account-to-account" approach. No card number to enter, no expiration date to copy—it's as straightforward as possible. The rollout begins in early May with 500,000 customers, before a gradual increase to all 13 million users by summer. For merchants, BPCE is also promoting the integration of Wero as a payment method, and the French Ski School (École du Ski Français) is among the first partners, with payments already processed.

One click, one account, and Europe as a backdrop

Behind this technological leap forward lies a very political issue, broadly speaking: independence. Wero is the commercial showcase of the European EPI initiative, supported by several banks across the continent, with a clear objective: to prevent Visa, Mastercard, or PayPal from unilaterally setting the rules of the game. BPCE states this unequivocally through its Chief Digital & Payments Officer, Yves Tyrode, who speaks of a matter of payment sovereignty, a term that frequently arises whenever financial infrastructure is discussed.

The real deciding factor remains usage. For a payment method to become automatic, it requires a large number of compatible websites, a seamless user experience, and widespread acceptance from banks, not just in France. Germany led the way at the end of 2025, Belgium followed at the beginning of 2026, and the next announced step is in-store payment, with the goal of large-scale deployment across Europe by 2027. If Wero manages to become integrated into everyday life, the bank card could lose some of its monopoly… without disappearing altogether, at least not immediately.