The End of Giropay: Key Actions Before July 1st, 2024

Giropay/Paydirect, the leading online banking method in Germany with approximately 45 million users, is set to close. Starting July 1st, 2024, acquirers will no longer be able to migrate to the new API required to continue using it. All the payments attempted through Giropay after the deadline will be declined. 

Why is Giropay closing?

Instead of Giropay, German banks are backing the European Payments Initiative (EPI), a startup that aims to create a unified European payment system. The decision to shut down Paydirekt comes just before the launch of Wero, a new EPI payment wallet supported by 31 major eurozone banks and acquirers Worldline and Nets. At the moment, Wero supports instant P2P (person-to-person) and C2B (customer-to-business) account-to-account payments. 

The pilot version of the wallet is now available in Germany, Belgium, and France and is set to expand to other European countries within a few years. The plan is to gradually extend support to online store payments, mobile shopping, and eventually, POS terminal transactions.

With Wero on the horizon, Paydirekt stakeholders and market observers speculate that this new launch could further diminish Paydirekt’s standing, as it has struggled to gain significant traction in Germany’s cash-oriented market.

What do you need to do before the deadline?

1. Update your checkout page by removing the Giropay button from the list of payment methods.
2. Prioritize alternative payment methods such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal on the payment page.

If you are using Solidgate’s hosted UI, no code changes are required. Solidgate will automatically remove Giropay for you.

What happens if you don’t take action?

If you don’t remove Giropay from your checkout page before the deadline, any payments your customers try to make through it will fail. Without seeing other preferred payment methods, they won’t be able to pay and will abandon the checkout.