iDEAL Trends & Stats: Adoption Growth and EU Expansion Plans

iDeal has been a major digital payment processor in the Netherlands since 2005. It has now been acquired by a consortium of European banks and will slowly move to a new name and system known as Wero. With iDEAL still widely in use, we discuss where it can still be found and how the change will impact its market growth, customers and retailers.

For those outside the Netherlands, iDEAL may not be a brand that springs to mind. It is an e-commerce payment system used widely in the country. It was set up by the company Commerce on home soil and was later acquired by the European Payments Initiative. It allows consumers to pay for goods through their own bank.

The uses for iDEAL are quite endless, with businesses outside the e-commerce sector offering it. Paying bills, taxes, donating to charity and fulfilling payment requests are just some of them. It is even possible to pay for online entertainment using the platform. Online-casinos.com have ranked the best iDEAL casinos, which can allow residents in the Netherlands access to online games and slots with ease. Best of all is that people paying through this method still qualify for all the bonuses and rewards other customers would at sign up.

Initially, the idea was floated by a conglomerate of major Dutch banks. By 2005, the service was opened to the public, and since then, iDeal has grown quite quickly in the Netherlands. In its initial year of 2006, it managed to process 4.4 million transactions. By 2021, it was handling 1.14 billion per year. By 2023, it claimed to be handling 70% of the online payment market in the country.

The owners of iDeal, the European Payments Initiative (EPI), have announced that the service will cease, or at least its name will, as it transitions to a new product named Wero. It will take place as part of broader efforts to bring all its payment methods under one banner, with Wero already being a P2P payment solution known in Germany, Belgium and France. It will also replace systems in these countries, such as Bancontact in Belgium.

The EPI has said that there is a demand for a European-wide payment system. Bringing iDEAL under the control of the 16 banks that own the EPI and assimilating it into Wero shows a desire for market consolidation. The major problem with iDEAL is that it only works with Dutch banks. If a customer wanted to use it to send money to France or Italy, they would not be able to. Wero will address this with P2P payments, e-commerce and m-commerce payments across borders.

Wero is scheduled to be fully in place by the end of 2027. However, this may take longer as it is being introduced on a country-by-country basis. It began in Germany on 2 July 2024, before moving to France in September of the same year. By November, it had arrived in Belgium.

For consumers, it now means that they will be able to make transactions across borders. This could involve sending funds to banks in Germany, France or Belgium without any issues. It is assumed this will also be cheaper, more secure and quicker than the usual funds and time limits attached to cross-border banking transactions.

There has also been no information on whether the current service will simply switch over via an upgrade or if customers will have to sign up again. It is most likely due to data protection and consumers' rights that people will have to resign some documentation regarding the change.

The first phase of Wero begins in 2026. At the beginning, this will simply be a logo change that states iDEAL | Wero, introducing customers to the transition. Apart from this, everything else will remain the same, including levels of service and how people pay. The logo changes will be handled by the PSP.

By the end of 2027, all iDEAL merchants will be using Wero. The old iDEAL brand will gradually be phased out, until Wero is the only payment provider that remains. This should provide no disruption to businesses or to the consumer experience. For webshop owners, they must stay updated with regard to plugins and branding. They may wish to notify customers of the change and that no service will be impacted.

Nothing lasts forever, and though iDEAL is a well-known and trusted payment processing solution, it makes sense to migrate it to a wider European one. This will be a better solution for both retailers and customers.