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anticrymactic 4 hours ago

Wero is such a valuable asset for Europe and couldn't have come at a better time.

It's built on the excellent SEPA system, which standardized bank transfers and "Lastschrift" in Europe. SEPA itself got a huge upgrade last year with mandatory instant transfers that cannot cost more than standard transfers between European checking accounts.

Both of those allowed Wero to happen as a final abstract top layer, meaning: the UX of sending money to an email address with the security and convenience of bank transfers. And everything is built collaboratively on top of European banking infrastructure.

No account necessary and no private american conglomerates can delete that account.

And before some says: "Well, now the government controls everything!": They already did, since... Ever. Now its one less entity with that access and one that can be (hopefully) controlled and changed by a majority.

microtonal 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Note that Wero is amongs others based on the Dutch iDEAL [1] system, which was introduced 21 years ago. Virtually every Dutch web shop supports iDEAL (and many only support iDEAL) as well as international payment services such as PayPal and Stripe. As a result, the vast majority of transactions of Dutch webshops go through iDEAL. It is really a super-nice frictionless system.

iDEAL also supports P2P payments through Tikkie (ABN AMRO) or the payment request option of other banks. You basically show a QR code or send a link and the person paying goes through the iDEAL flow to transfer the money. Tikkie (and the other bank's similar and compatible systems) have been one of the primary methods for P2P transfers for many years now.

I am really happy that we are getting the same system across multiple countries now. Contactless payments through Wero are also planned, so that we can finally become independent of Google/Apple Pay for contactless payments using a phone.

[1] EPI purchased the Dutch iDEAL and Belgian Payconiq and mentioned on multiple occasions that Wero is based on the foundations of iDEAL. They kept iDEAL running as a separate system in order not to disturb it during the upbringing of Wero, but iDeal is going to migrated to Wero the coming period.

Freak_NL 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> and many only support iDEAL

Actually, look closer when you pay using Ideal (as we all do). You will notice that usually there are several payment methods, and these almost always include credit cards.

The reason for this is not because the Dutch like to pay using credit cards (most Dutch never use one), but because of a little known law regarding online stores. It is, in fact, not allowed to only offer payment options that require the customer to pay the full amount upfront. And Ideal (and Wero) do just that: you order a T-shirt for €20, you pay €20 upfront, the shirt gets shipped, and you receive it.

Now have a look at this note:

https://www.acm.nl/nl/verkoop-aan-consumenten/de-koop-sluite...

> U mag maximaal 50% vooruitbetaling vragen voor producten die u nog moet leveren.

> Dit betekent dat u standaard mag aanbieden om het hele bedrag te betalen. Maar u geeft klanten ook de mogelijkheid om minimaal 50% pas na levering te betalen.

There are almost no online stores which offer this of course. It's just not part of this commercial model. Not for a T-shirt (or whatever).

So what is the trick the government itself even recommends?

Credit cards.

https://ondernemersplein.overheid.nl/geldzaken-en-belastinge...

Something about the way credit card payments reserve payments initially and the way credit cards offer consumer protection services makes this a payment option which, apparently, fulfils this 50% after delivery rule…

pembrook an hour ago | parent [-]

To be honest I like the idea of forcing merchants to accept credit cards in addition to this.

Regardless of how much I like the idea of a payments layer without Visa/Mastercard fees, I think the rich engineers of hackernews and 10,000 overpaid consultants who worked on this massively underestimate how valuable an interest-free 30 day bridge loan is to average people (and businesses) on monthly payroll.

Combine this with the consumer protections and threat of a dispute (which almost always sides with the buyer) and it generally tilts power to the consumer in most credit card transactions, if the consumer has autopay setup (huge caveat of course).

This new layer is totally neutral, and removes the detriment to the merchant in terms of fees/risk, but not sure it’s actually as good for the market as claimed here. For me it’s a net loss, and harming consumers ultimately harms the merchant in terms of willingness to buy things. If it becomes trendy for merchants to start refusing credit cards to use this instead, I will be WAY less likely to take a risk on a purchase I’m not 100% confident about.

Im not willing to try new products from most startups for example if I can’t buy on a credit card.

edwinjm 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What was the iDEAL payment option now says iDeal WERO. The Dutch are already using WERO for a couple of months now.

Muromec 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

We don't, it's the same ideal 2.0 with a different logo. Literally nothing changed and I saw the exact commits too.

microtonal 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Not really. They just changed the logo to make people get used to the name. The next phase where they start migrating the iDEAL infra into Wero starts in October:

https://www.betaalvereniging.nl/actueel/volgende-fase-migrat...

mi_lk 2 hours ago | parent [-]

English version: https://www.betaalvereniging.nl/en/news/next-phase-of-ideal-...

kabes 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I thought Wero is based on ideal 2.0, which in itself is based on payconiq. Which is quite different from th old ideal system

haagch 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's not the same system. iDEAL supports banks to implement payment in their online banking websites, while Wero is Google/Apple ecosystem exclusive.

sizero 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Wero’s goal is to become a European payment system. Like an iDEAL across EU countries. That requires buy-in from major EU banks, some of which are shareholders of EPI, the company behind Wero.

It’s also a response to the ECB’s digital Euro, a way that banks show the central bank “hey, we the banks are actually capable of creating a good EU-level payment system”.

dewey 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> while Wero is Google/Apple ecosystem exclusive

It's barely launched in more than 5 EU countries. It's not part of the specs or requirements to only be available in the Google / Apple ecosystem.

weberer 40 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

From their site:

>It is not possible to send Wero payments to friends & family via a web browser or on a computer

https://support.wero-wallet.eu/hc/en-us/articles/25599074240...

So its pretty clear they have no plans to support plain browser access. Which is a very strange decision to me.

dtech 27 minutes ago | parent [-]

It's primarily an online payment system, not a money transfer system. It has worked since forever (20+ years, it's a rebranded Dutch system) from web browser. Still does.

peter_stokes 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> It's not part of the specs or requirements to only be available in the Google / Apple ecosystem.

but at the moment, it is. so he's right to be nervous. from one american duopoly to another.

but i share your optimism that they eventually allow this to work without them.

dewey 3 hours ago | parent [-]

The commenter is stating that as a fact, which is spreading information that's not true to others reading that.

Perfect is the enemy of good as always. Having a system that is currently available on the two biggest mobile platforms for the launch (Covering probably 99.9% of consumers) is already much better than piping every single transaction through two US mega corps.

haagch 34 minutes ago | parent [-]

Replies from the German GLS bank on mastodon imply that EPI does not support the use case where banks add it to their web interface

https://ruhr.social/@glsbank/116215341782832097 https://ruhr.social/@glsbank/116125936995037426

> Good morning, it's not "our" fault. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about it—Wero is a service offered by EPI, and they've decided to take a "mobile-first" approach for now. Warm regards from Bochum!

As for the prospects of ever seeing banking apps outside of android/ios, there is only https://www.das-parlament.de/wirtschaft/finanzen/wir-bauen-m...

> What about smartphones that run on free and open-source software instead of the commercial operating systems used by the iPhone or Google? > Tanja Müller-Ziegler: This market is still very much a niche one. There are still too few providers, which is why it’s hardly worth offering banking apps for these devices.

> Perfect is the enemy of good as always.

I'm no expert on iDEAL, but being 20 years old, it's older than Android and iOS and presumably supported web based payments from the very beginning. I really don't understand why nowadays people seem to think that app exclusivity is somehow a natural starting point. It's a relatively recent invention.

dewey 28 minutes ago | parent [-]

> they've decided to take a "mobile-first" approach for now

That's hardly a confirmation that it will never be possible ("for now"). It seems like a fair tradeoff for a launch when almost everyone has a smartphone and that's already enforced like that for many parts of life (I'm not saying it's great, but it's a valid tradeoff when alternative options exist) like banking or public transport where the happy path often is a phone app.

microtonal 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

iDEAL supports banks to implement payment in their online banking websites

So does Wero, as I cited in another comment:

The Wero app is available only for account holders from the German bank Postbank and the French bank La Banque Postale.

Are you a customer of another Wero-enabled bank? If so, you can easily use Wero within your banking app.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.epicompany....

It's not the same system.

I said that it is based on the iDEAL system:

Wero is built on the foundation of iDEAL, backed by 16 major European banks – including the Dutch banks behind iDEAL.

https://ideal.nl/en/naar-wero

The European Payments Initiative (EPI) acquired the Dutch payment system iDEAL with the aim of making it the standard payment solution across all European countries. [...] The first step is to make iDEAL the standard in France and Germany because the countries don’t yet have a standard payment system for e-commerce, according to AD. Customers in the Netherlands will notice little of this.

https://nltimes.nl/2023/04/25/dutch-payment-processor-ideal-... / https://www.ad.nl/economie/online-betalingssysteem-ideal-wor...

astrolx 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Really? I frequently use Wero but never installed their app. I use it through my bank application on /e/os

haagch 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> No account necessary and no private american conglomerates can delete that account.

Officially you need a Google or Apple account to download a wero capable app from their stores, and Google and Apple can always delete all wero capable apps from their stores like for example with Russian sanctioned banks.

Some banking apps work on non - google play controlled android smartphones, but always only accidentally. Some banks like for example Consorbank already crack down on "sideloading" their app at all: https://www.reddit.com/r/Consorsbank/comments/1p909w1/commen...

microtonal 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If Wero is going to be similar to iDEAL, which it is based on, the payment flow will be through your bank's app. Heck, even the Wero app description says so:

The Wero app is available only for account holders from the German bank Postbank and the French bank La Banque Postale.

Are you a customer of another Wero-enabled bank? If so, you can easily use Wero within your banking app.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.epicompany....

I have seen quite some people downloading their banking apps through the Aurora store (admittedly, it's a frontend for the Play Store, but you don't need an account or the app). Or you can use something like APKMirror and verify that they have the correct signing keys.

Of course, if they need Play Services or Play Integrity basic, then you need sandboxed Google Play or microG. If your bank does remote attestation through Play Integrity, then it is game over, but it is worth contacting your bank. E.g. some banks have added the GrapheneOS signing keys and added support for AOSP remote attestation.

nh2 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Im a German with a German Postbank account, living in Switzerland.

Wero app Play Store page: "This item isn't available in your country."

Hard to cheer for a thing when it prevents you to access your own money, and promises to "easily pay" immediately fall flat.

Paypal is bad but at least it doesn't fail at step 0.

V__ an hour ago | parent [-]

To be fair, how is Google blocking you from downloading an app, a Wero problem though?

jsnell 39 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

The publisher, in this case Postbank, decides what countries to allow installs from for an app. Google just enforces the policy the publisher sets.

kfse 37 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Country availability is a policy set up by the app publisher, not a Google policy

tosti 11 minutes ago | parent [-]

Which is complete bullshit with the Euro having been specifically invented to be used across the EU.

I had a similar moment of stupidifiedment trying to park in Germany with a phone set to Dutch region. Euro in cash works everywhere Euros are accepted but apps on the freaking Internet? Nah, gotta restrict that to the publisher country only.

sebtron 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I can pay with iDEAL without interacting with a smartphone, using only my laptop and a physical 2FA device provided by my bank. Do you know if this will be possible with Wero?

microtonal 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I am not 100% sure, but I think PSD3 will require that authentication methods without a smartphone are provided:

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/fr/qanda_...

Require payment services providers to ensure that all users can benefit from methods to perform SCA which are adapted to their needs and situations and, in particular, that those methods do not depend on one single technology, device or mechanism, for instance on the possession of a smartphone.

Muromec 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's up to your bank actually. Banks (generally) don't want to pay for your hardware key so you need to do a special dance to trigger their compliance bound neural pathways to send you one.

But then the true bliss will arrive the next year with eidas 3.0 or whatever it is called

haagch 24 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I have German bank accounts at two different banks and can send SEPA SCT instant transactions via webinterface and physical tan generator with both of them. Wero however is restricted to mobile apps regardless of what your tan generator is and in fact from what I heard, banks generally force you to switch to mobile app tan generators when opting into Wero.

The GLS bank implies it's not up to them. Generally I feel like implementation details are intentionally not made public. For example so far there is no definitive statement on the public internet I could find about whether iDEAL web based payments will still be available after iDEAL will actually switch to Wero. Statements like "For consumers, the online payment experience will remain largely unchanged, as they will continue to pay through their own bank." are always kept vague.

Freak_NL 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

In the Netherlands this boils down to the 'system banks' (the big ones like ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank, etc.) which grudgingly offer hardware devices for people who won't or can't use a smartphone, and the neobanks (like Revolut, Knab, and Bunq) which make an Android or IOS smartphone a hard requirement.

weberer 38 minutes ago | parent [-]

With Nordea, you get a code book full of one-time codes.

Phelinofist an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

But you can use Wero also from your good old desktop PC, right? Sure, paying in a restaurant with Wero for example might need this, but I think this is a really, really great first step in the right direction

anticrymactic 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

While researching Wero initially, I was confused too that no APK is offered. Maybe we can change that.grbn

3 hours ago | parent [-]
[deleted]
toomuchtodo 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It’s fine to decouple from US payment and financial infra today and punt on decoupling from US big tech in the future. These changes take time and effort at scale, so it’s about being directionally accurate, not doing all the changes all at once. “You eat an elephant one bite at a time.” Europe is eating the financial infra bites right now. There are other bites to be taken over the next several years.

Similar to Airbus moving critical apps from AWS to France’s Scaleway. Flexing the muscle needed to do the rest, and starting with the most important.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

Muromec 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I heard a loud and solid "fuck US" from the people forming the technical opinion on this matter.

The way selection function for the technical parties in this conversation is going makes it double the fun.

TRiG_Ireland an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My bank (BOFIIE2D) now gives me the option of instant or standard payments. Both cost the same. And in both cases the money leaves my account instantly. I can just choose whether it arrives at the recipient instantly or after a few days. I have no idea why standard is still an option. Why would I want that?

altern8 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> instant transfers that cannot cost more than standard transfers

Interesting, I didn't know that. Now, why would anyone want to do a non-instant transfer, then (short of not knowing about it like in my case)? Doesn't this mandate basically make all transfers instant?

anticrymactic 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

My bank sets the default to "Standard (1-3 Days). Many forget to click the checkbox. I have also heard: "I only do instant when I need it" implying some implicit cost/limit they fear. This is probably still worth it for Banks. As not _all_ transfers are now the dreadful super expensive instant variety.

pimterry 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They are allowed to set caps, I've seen them down to around €5000 per transaction so it's not literally all transfers. Still free to transfer above, just takes more than a few seconds to do so, presumably for fraud/theft protection. Some banks will make that a daily limit, or configurable, there's some flexibility but they're mandated to justify all limits with no arbitrary discrimination against instant transfers.

In practice, obviously most personal payments are well under that margin, so within-EU bank transfers are defacto instant everywhere. Most banking apps I've seen don't even show an 'instant/slow' option any more, it's just all instant.

pta2002 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A lot of banks won’t even give you the option of a non-instant transfer now, at least here in Portugal. Though non-instant transfers can in theory be recalled since there is some time before the money gets to the destination account, my bank even gives a warning now when doing a transfer to ensure I have the details right because they can not recall a transaction after the money arrives.

amarcheschi 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You have 1 hour to recall and cancel a transfer, but an instant transfer is non cancellable

t-sauer 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

But now every bank needs to support and implement it separately. My bank doesn't so far which is annoying.

ekjhgkejhgk 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> the UX of sending money to an email address

> No account necessary and no private american conglomerates can delete that account.

Who owns domain names (which emails require)? No, don't say people do, people don't own domain names, they lease them, and it's not a right either.

echoangle 2 hours ago | parent [-]

You can get the domains from your local European nations registrar though. How is the American conglomerate going to prevent that?

3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]
[deleted]
retired 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I frequently run into failed SEPA transfers. At least three per month out of ~200. So it could use some more stability for my use case.

In all fairness, I also have a couple of VISA payments that fail every month.