Wero, a digital payment service backed by a consortium of major European banks including BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, and institutions from Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, is accelerating its rollout in France as it pushes to reduce European dependence on American payment giants Visa, Mastercard, and Apple Pay. Currently available for peer-to-peer money transfers using just a phone number, the service will be accessible to 500,000 clients of Banque Populaire and Caisse d'Épargne from May, scaling to 13 million French customers by summer. The expansion — which follows launches in Germany in late 2025 and Belgium in March 2026 — reflects a growing strategic drive within the European Union to assert greater sovereignty over digital payments amid economic tensions with the United States.