Germany’s Paydirekt reportedly heading for closure in favour of EPI
A string of banks in Germany are reportedly preparing to end their support of Giropay operator Paydirekt in favour of the new European Payments Initiative (EPI).
Paydirekt reportedly heading for closure
Paydirekt was launched in late 2015 by a consortium of major German banks, including Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Sparkassen and Raiffeisenbanken, as a means to enable online shoppers to pay directly from their bank accounts.
The system later merged with the online payment system Giropay, founded in 2006, and peer-to-peer (P2P) payment service Kwitt in 2021, to further unite domestic mobile and online-based payment capabilities across Germany as a direct competitor to the likes of PayPal.
However, the future of the merged company was called into question this week when an undisclosed spokesperson told Finanz-Szene: “There are currently votes at shareholder level on the future of Giropay or Paydirekt GmbH as the operating company.”
Further developments are expected to emerge during a shareholder meeting set for later this week, which could result in the total closure of the company.
Speculation of the system’s potential demise coincides with the imminent arrival of Wero, the EPI’s digital wallet solution which is set to launch in Germany, France and Belgium “by mid-2024”, according to a recent statement.
In addition to its pan-European connectivity, with its launch to be “followed by the Netherlands and…other countries in the years to come”, Wero also promises to deliver “secure and fast payments, P2P transactions, online shopping capabilities [and] loyalty programmes”.
This provision is to be supported by the account-to-account (A2A) infrastructure also being developed by the EPI, as well as the acquisitions of Currence’s iDEAL solution and Payconiq International (PQI) actioned in November.
FinTech Futures has contacted Paydirekt for comment.
