ACI Worldwide Partners with EPI’s Wero Wallet to Accelerate Instant Payments Across Europe

At the Open Banking Expo, ACI Worldwide announced a strategic integration with EPI’s Wero wallet solution, aiming to deliver true instant payment capabilities throughout the European market. The partnership combines ACI’s global payments network with Wero’s consumer‑focused digital wallet, promising a seamless experience for both merchants and end‑users. By embedding Wero’s open‑banking APIs directly into ACI’s infrastructure, the joint offering seeks to reduce transaction latency to a matter of seconds, aligning with the growing demand for real‑time money movement.

Wero, developed by European Payments Initiative (EPI), is a mobile‑first wallet that aggregates multiple bank accounts, cards and digital currencies under a single user interface. EPI, a consortium of leading European banks, created Wero to address fragmented payment experiences and to provide a unified gateway for open‑banking services such as account‑to‑account transfers, balance checks and payment initiation. The wallet is built on the PSD2 framework, leveraging secure APIs that enable third‑party providers to access bank data with explicit consumer consent. By joining forces with ACI Worldwide, Wero gains access to a proven, high‑throughput clearing and settlement layer that operates across more than 200 countries. EPI’s broader ecosystem also includes partners such as Cardentity, which provides card‑issuance services that can be linked to the wallet.

Integration details

The technical integration relies on ACI’s Payments Hub, which already supports ISO 20022 messaging, tokenisation and fraud‑prevention tools. Wero’s API endpoints are mapped to the Hub’s transaction routing logic, allowing a payment request initiated in the wallet to be instantly forwarded to the appropriate clearing scheme, whether it is a domestic instant scheme such as SEPA Instant Credit Transfer or a cross‑border solution like the European Payments Initiative’s own instant rail. The combined solution also inherits ACI’s real‑time risk scoring, meaning that merchants can accept payments without the traditional delay associated with card authorisation. For developers, the integration is exposed through a single SDK that abstracts the underlying network complexity, simplifying the implementation for fintechs and traditional banks alike.

Impact on consumers and businesses

For consumers, the partnership translates into a wallet that can move funds between accounts and pay merchants in real time, eliminating the waiting period that typically accompanies card‑based settlements. Small and medium‑size enterprises stand to benefit from faster cash flow, as invoices can be settled the moment a customer confirms payment. The instant nature of the service also opens new use cases such as on‑demand gig‑economy payouts and real‑time refunds. In parallel, financial institutions can leverage the integration to offer value‑added services without building a payments backbone from scratch; a bank that already supports Wero can now provide its customers with ACI‑grade settlement speed. Industry observers note that the collaboration mirrors similar moves by global players seeking to embed open‑banking functionality directly into their core payment rails, a trend that is reinforced by the presence of platforms like Wise that already demonstrate the appetite for borderless, instant transfers.

Looking ahead, the ACI‑Wero alliance is positioned to scale as European regulators continue to promote instant payment schemes and as consumer expectations evolve toward frictionless digital experiences. The joint solution is expected to be rolled out across multiple jurisdictions, with additional features such as multi‑currency support and programmable payment triggers slated for future releases. While the exact timeline remains subject to market adoption, the partnership signals a clear commitment to building a pan‑European instant payment ecosystem that can compete with both legacy card networks and emerging fintech platforms. Stakeholders will be watching closely to see how the combined offering influences pricing, competition and the overall speed of money movement in the region.