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giropay discontinued as German banks pivot to Wero
What happened
giropay (which had absorbed paydirekt) was discontinued on 31 December 2024. New merchant onboarding and payment processing largely ceased from mid-2024, with refunds and transaction-data access via the merchant portal continuing into early 2025. Operator paydirekt GmbH cited heavy losses and the German banking industry's strategic shift toward the EPI/Wero initiative; merchants were directed to alternatives including Wero for online retail.
Why it matters
giropay's wind-down clears the field for Wero as Germany's bank-backed A2A method and forces merchants and PSPs to re-platform online bank-transfer acceptance, accelerating the consolidation of domestic European A2A around EPI.
What to watch
How quickly former giropay merchants adopt Wero or alternatives, residual transaction-data/refund cutoffs, and whether Wero fills the gap in German e-commerce A2A.
Sources
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