Early Warning Services, a consortium of seven large US banks that also runs Zelle, wants to bring its Paze digital wallet to the 100 largest US merchants over the next three years. After a redesign that began in May 2025 because of low conversion and approval rates, the new version launched in June alongside a large advertising campaign and promotions. Management says Paze is on track to beat its 2026 transaction target four times over and already holds about 220 million cards. The wallet does not share card numbers with merchants and uses tokens instead.

What it means: The Paze story matters for Europe because it shows how hard it is for banks to compete with the wallets of Apple, Google and PayPal, even when they work together and hold millions of cards. Success did not come from simply having a product, but from simplifying the experience, improving approval rates and paying customers to try the wallet. In Europe the equivalent effort is Wero from the European Payments Initiative, which is expanding into online shopping, while in Greece banks rely mainly on IRIS for instant payments. The lesson for Greek banks and payment providers is that shared bank schemes need fast decisions and investment in user experience to win share. For Greek online shops, more wallets mean more options at checkout, but also a need to measure which methods actually raise completed purchases. Using tokens instead of card numbers also reduces the risk from merchant data breaches, which makes PCI DSS compliance easier. Merchants should also check how each new wallet affects authorisation rates and refunds before switching it on.

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