European Payments Initiative Closes Acquisition of iDeal and Payconiq

The European Payments Initiative (EPI), a bank-backed venture that was initially set up to build a rival to Mastercard and Visa in Europe, has completed the acquisition of Dutch payment scheme iDeal and Luxembourg's Payconiq.

EPI says it has secured regulatory clearance to close the deals, which were first announced in April, marking a significant milestone for its ambition to build a unified instant payment scheme and platform for Europe.

Initially backed by 31 major Eurozone banks and acquirers Worldline and Nets, the EPI set itself the goal of building a unified pan-European payment system, offering a card for consumers and merchants across Europe, a digital wallet and P2P payments.

With the iDeal and Payconiq deals tied up, EPI will start preparing the deployment of its payment solution in Belgium, France, Germany, followed by the Netherlands - countries that together represent more than half of all non-cash payments in the euro area, before extending to other European countries.

In September, the venture selected 'wero' as the commercial name for its forthcoming digital wallet, which will be rolled out in phases, initially to support account-to-account based instant P2P and consumer-to-business payments, followed by online and mobile shopping payments and then point-of-sale payments.

Martina Weimert, CEO, EPI, says, "I believe that their [iDeal and Payconiq's] expertise and experience will be very valuable in driving the success of EPI and its payment solution Wero."

(Source: Finextra)