The European Payments Initiative (EPI) has confirmed it is planning to roll out a new instant payment solution for Europe.
It said in a statement it expects to launch the solution once it completes its planned acquisition of both Currence iDEAL and payment solutions provider Payconiq International (PQI). PQI currently serves iDEAL’s e-commerce payment system in the Netherlands as well as Bancontact Payconiq Company in Belgium and Payconiq in Luxembourg.
EPI said that an agreement with the shareholders of these companies had been reached, and that the acquisition will go ahead, subject to approval by the competent national and European authorities.
Martina Weimert, CEO of EPI said: “Together we will join forces to realise EPI’s vision as we build an innovative solution based on a new, unified instant payment scheme and platform for Europe. EPI will leverage the strong operational experience, know-how and local market knowledge of these companies. We are developing a new, scalable platform to address the modern and evolving payment needs of European consumers and merchants in the best possible way, with efficient, state-of-the-art technology.”
Multi-faceted digital wallet
EPI said its instant account-to account payment across European countries will be part of a “multi-faceted” digital wallet solution. It plans to initially enable person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-professional (P2Pro) payments, followed by online and mobile shopping payments and then point-of-sale payments.
According to the scheme, the supported transaction types will include one-off payments, subscriptions, installments, payments upon delivery and reservations. Additionally, EPI said other services such as ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL), digital identity features and merchant loyalty programmes will be integrated over time.
The EPI digital wallet with P2P payment functionality will be launched for the first users in a pilot phase by the end of 2023 across France and Germany. A broader market launch in Belgium, France and Germany will happen in early 2024. These markets together represent more than half of all non-cash payments in the Euro area. Subsequent expansion to other European countries will follow thereafter.
