The Dutch online payment system iDeal will gradually disappear from next year and be replaced by the European platform Wero but nothing will change for consumers.
“People will simply keep paying via their own bank app, just as they do now with iDeal,” Amos Kater of payment system company Currence, which owns iDeal, told broadcaster NOS on Monday.
However, he said, fraudsters are likely to exploit the transition by sending fake messages urging users to update their details and so get access to their bank accounts. “There is no need to change anything,” he told NOS. “You will just keep paying the way you always do.”
Launched by Dutch banks in 2005, iDeal helped standardise online payments in the Netherlands and now processes more than 1.5 billion transactions a year. Its success prompted banks in several European countries to develop a shared alternative under a new name: Wero, short for “We Euro”.
The platform has been developed by the European Payments Initiative, a partnership of banks from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and Luxembourg. Wero has already been rolled out in Germany, Belgium and France.
From January, Dutch consumers will start seeing a combined iDeal/Wero logo at online checkouts. Later in 2026, Wero’s systems will be tested for online payments in the Netherlands, with the first webshops switching over by the end of the year. iDeal is expected to disappear completely in 2027.
While iDeal is limited to Dutch users, Wero will allow consumers in several European countries to pay with the same button, expanding the options for webshops.
The system will also be extended with new features, including purchase protection similar to that offered by credit cards, delayed payments until delivery, and the option to pay subscriptions as an alternative to direct debit.
The Consumentenbond has described the transition as promising, particularly as a European alternative to US-based payment providers such as Visa, Mastercard and PayPal. European banks argue that Wero will strengthen financial independence at a time of growing geopolitical tension.
