The European Payments Initiative (EPI) is about to be reborn.
The cooperative institutes will participate in "EPI 2.0", a spokeswoman for DZ Bank confirmed to the FAZ on Wednesday
Archibald Preuschat
Editor in Business
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The German savings banks, which have always been positive about the project, confirmed their willingness to participate financially on Wednesday.
"We are confident that the participating institutions will succeed in establishing EPI as a payment system and creating an offer that is just as attractive for customers as it is for retailers," said a spokesman for the German Savings Banks and Giro Association (DSGV).
The cooperative institutes initially withdrew from the EPI, as did Commerzbank and Hypovereinsbank.
In addition to the savings banks, only Deutsche Bank was one of the 13 European supporters of the project, which is intended to make Europe independent of the US credit card companies.
They earn money with many cashless payments and receive valuable data on customer behavior.
It is initially unclear how Commerzbank and the UniCredit subsidiary HVB are positioning themselves.
The focus of "EPI 2.0" is not a Girocard valid throughout Europe, but a digital solution, a so-called "wallet", which triggers payments from the customer's account in real time.
The procedure could be similar to paying with a QR code, which is already common in other countries.