Ideal
“Can the dominant Dutch bank-redirect payment scheme successfully migrate its merchant and consumer base to the pan-European Wero wallet standard?”
Founded2005
HQAmsterdam, Netherlands
IndustryInfrastructure / Payments
The story
iDEAL launched in 2005 as a consortium-operated Dutch online banking payment method under Currence, enabling authenticated bank-redirect payments. It became the dominant online payment method in the Netherlands. In 2025–2026, Wero (the European mobile payment initiative backed by major European banks) acquired iDEAL, triggering a migration from the iDEAL brand to iDEAL | Wero and eventually to the broader Wero scheme.
Product timeline
2005
iDEAL launched as a Netherlands-based online bank-redirect payment method operated by Currence, enabling consumers to pay directly from their bank accounts.· payments
2026
iDEAL acquired by Wero (European digital wallet initiative); rebranding underway to iDEAL | Wero with migration expected through 2026–2027.· pivot
Regulated entities
Payment Scheme / Payment Institution
Netherlands (DNB) · 2005
Currence iDEAL B.V.
The stack
Accounting gap: none