“Meet the People of Aptitude” introduces the experts and innovators working behind the Aptitude project, one of Europe’s large-scale pilots testing the European Digital Identity Wallet in real-life conditions.
In this interview, we meet Ludovic Francesconi, Chief Member and Strategy Officer at EPI Company. As one of the driving forces behind Wero, a European account-to-account payment solution, Francesconi brings a concrete industry perspective on what payment sovereignty means in practice for European citizens and how it connects to the broader EUDI Wallet ecosystem.
How does Wero contribute to making online payments safer and simpler?
“Wero is a new payment solution based on account-to-account instant payments, directly to the merchant. There are no cards involved. This gives consumers more control over their payment means and more information related to their payments.”
Can you give us a concrete example of how a user could make a contactless payment?
“For contactless payments, it will be just as today. The only difference is that today, when you make a contactless payment with your mobile phone, you most probably use a card and a wallet provided by your mobile phone. With Wero, you will have a European solution that enables you to pay directly from your account at the merchant with NFC contactless payment, but also with QR code.”
How does this European approach to digital payments differ from existing solutions?
“Wero is a European initiative and we are striving for sovereignty and independence in payments. This is very important for us and has been the foundation of the European Payments Initiative. We are European and we provide a European service made for Europeans.”
The Aptitude project brings together partners from 12 EU Member States and Ukraine to test the European Digital Identity Wallet in real-life scenarios such as travel, payments and digital services. The goal is to make digital identity secure, trusted and citizen-controlled, while ensuring services can work seamlessly across borders.
Learn more about the Payments and Banking use case: https://aptitude.digital-identity-wallet.eu/wallet-use/payments-with-strong-customer-authentication/
Learn more about the Aptitude Consortium: https://aptitude.digital-identity-wallet.eu/our-consortium/
