Europe · GDP rank #4
Germany
DE · EUR @ 1.1595/USD
The largest economy in Europe and the most cash-resilient. Cash still clears roughly half of consumer transactions by volume, the domestic girocard scheme dominates debit, and credit-card penetration is among the lowest in the G10. The slow shifts are real — SEPA Instant is finally free at most banks, Wero is building out — but a story of rapid card displacement is wrong for Germany in 2026.
Tab 08
Pulse
The preceding ~90 days of macro, regulation, product, funding and milestone events. Each item is primary-sourced; no trade-press echo.
- 7 days agolaunch
Worldpay (now Global Payments) joins EPI to enable Wero merchant acceptance
Global Payments — Worldpay's parent post-2025 merger — confirmed its EPI membership to support Wero acceptance across European merchants. The deal extends Wero's reach beyond bank-direct acceptance into the long tail of acquirer-served SME merchants, addressing the principal gating constraint on P2M volume.
- #wero
- #epi
- #worldpay
- #global-payments
Source: Worldpay (Global Payments)
- 3 weeks agodata
Bundesbank: SCT Inst now 21% of total SCT volume in Germany
The Bundesbank's Q1 2026 payments release reported SEPA Instant credit transfers reached 21% of total SCT volume in Germany, up from 9% at end-2024. The growth is overwhelmingly IPR-driven — fee abolition at Sparkassen and cooperative banks closed the structural pricing gap that had suppressed instant adoption since 2017.
- #sepa-instant
- #bundesbank
- #ipr
- #data
Source: Deutsche Bundesbank
- 5 weeks agomilestone
Wero e-commerce goes live in Germany via Sparkassen and Volksbanken
EPI confirmed Wero e-commerce as live in Germany, deployed through Sparkassen and Volksbanken/Raiffeisenbanken; Postbank, Deutsche Bank, ING Deutschland and Revolut are scheduled to follow during 2026. Germany now hosts the first live merchant-acceptance footprint for Wero outside the original P2P scope.
- #wero
- #epi
- #e-commerce
- #launch
Source: EPI / Finextra
- 6 weeks agomilestone
Wero passes 13m users across the EPI footprint
EPI announced Wero had crossed 13m registered users across Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Germany accounts for roughly a quarter. Merchant-side rollout — still the gating step for P2M volume — is now scheduled for broader availability in H2 2026.
- #wero
- #epi
- #a2a
Source: European Payments Initiative
- 2 months agoregulation
BaFin confirms MiCA Phase 2 supervisory approach for stablecoin issuers
BaFin published supervisory expectations for Germany-licensed MiCA Title III/IV stablecoin issuers, covering reserve composition, redemption rights and AML obligations. Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank tokenized-deposit projects are explicitly outside scope as they remain commercial bank money.
- #bafin
- #mica
- #stablecoins
Source: BaFin
- 3 months agomilestone
girocard contactless share crosses 85% — first full Bundesbank quarter above the threshold
EURO Kartensysteme reported girocard contactless share rose above 85% for the first full quarter in Q4 2025, against a 2022 baseline of 69%. The shift removes one of the structural drags on POS card volume vs cash and reduces the cost-per-transaction gap with mobile wallets.
- #girocard
- #contactless
- #data
Source: EURO Kartensysteme / girocard