(BFM Stock Exchange) – The French payments specialist collapses on the stock market after several European newspaper articles have validated payments spent by high -risk customers, such as players in the game or pornography industry. The company explains that it has changed its practices in 2023.

Worldline is once again undergoing the wrath of the scholarship. As a reminder, the payment services specialist holds the little enviable record of the strongest fall on a session of a CAC 40 group, with a diver of 59.24% on October 25, 2023 following a warning on resounding results.

This Wednesday, June 25, the ex-Filiale of Atos once again sank. The action unscrewed 38.3% at the end of the morning to fall to a new historic low.

The title is sealed by a survey carried out by a consortium of European journalists called “European Investigative Collaborations” (EIC). The media having participated in this survey, like Le Soir or Médiapart, revealed its content in a series of articles called “Dirty Payments”.

“During the last decade, the Worldline group has operated, with impunity, billions of euros in fraudulent payments or contrary to ethics on behalf of the worst online commerce: scammers, illegal casinos, controversial porn groups, prostitution sites and alleged laundering networks”, writes in the evening.

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Online casinos and prostitution sites

Médiapart claims that the company “knowingly closed its eyes”, in contradiction with its regulatory obligations, on the practices of its customers defined as being “at high risk”, that is to say particularly exposed to the risk of fraud and money laundering.

The investigation media reports, for example, that an American customer would have exhibited in 2018 a cannabis fraud scheme before a business salesperson.

Médiapart also mentions payment software designed by online casinos and which would have been used by a group operating around a hundred gaming sites appearing on the black list of at least one country of the European Union.

The media also says that the payment group has worked with at least 10 prostitution sites “even when its internal rules are formally prohibited it”. Mediapart underlines that banks stopped working with Worldline in the early 2020s, notably invoking “limited confidence” towards society.

Médiapart points to a fact which had already been mentioned by Worldline. In July 2023, the Bafin, the German market gendarme, sanctioned the group for non-compliance with its antifraude and anti-Blanching obligations, recalls the media.

Worldline had mentioned this sanction. “In Germany, in 2023, in the context of current audits, the Bafin financial supervisory authority asked Payone (a subsidiary of Worldline, editor’s note) not to carry out transactions for certain specific customers within the online merchant portfolio, in particular due to the conditions of integration and monitoring of these customers, which led Payone to end certain relations with partners and merchants Germany “, could be in his universal recording document published in 2024.

Following this Bafin decision, Worldline decided in October 2023 to stop its services with certain traders and improve its controls. What had been the source of its warning on results.

“Faced with the general rise of cybercrime, the emergence of new fraudulent behaviors and the tightening of regulatory directives and market constraints, we have tightened our policy of appetite for risks. Therefore, we have stopped our services to certain traders for which the associated costs and potential risks were not compatible with our revised requirements” Worldline.

The payment group then evaluated a maximum amount of income related to these traders likely to fraudulent behavior of around 130 million euros.

The reduced wing of high -risk customers

Médiapart writes that if “officially since 2024 everything is clean” at Worldline, the payment group would still have “highly suspicious” customers, dixit the investigation site, such as the Onlyfans content platform.

These customers are more particularly categorized “HBR” (for “High-Brand Risk”), a name which comes from visa and which brings together companies presenting “a high risk for the payment system, in particular due to a higher number of disputes or a risk for the brand or the reputation”.

“These types of merchants are also generally highly regulated, some being considered illegal in certain jurisdictions,” adds Visa.

It is not forbidden to trade with all the actors entering this category (tobacconists and dating sites can belong to it) but the regulatory authorities require increased verifications in the fight against money laundering or the financing of terrorism.

In a press release, Worldline reacted to the information published by the various EIC media.

“Worldline is evolving in a demanding and constantly evolving regulatory environment, in particular in the HBR (High Business Risk) sectors), such as online casinos, online brokerage platforms or adult dating services. Since 2023, the group has strengthened its merchant management framework in order to ensure its total compliance with laws and regulations,” said the company.

“He led an in -depth review of his HBR portfolio – which currently represents around 1.5% of his volumes acquired – and terminated the commercial relations identified as non -compliant with this reinforced framework,” added the group.

“Risk of reputation”

Worldline also ensures that its fraud rate is “lower than the average” and that its HBR customers are “now the subject of reinforced monitoring”.

A financial analyst believes that the market is “a little in the surreaction to this information”, while the action plunged by 38%. “Even if you can understand your reaction,” he admits.

“The problem is that investors thought that the file was closed in 2023. With the reaction of Worldline we learn that these high-risk customers still represent 1.5% of volumes. It is not so surprising, but it puts a room in the machine and can worry some. This while Worldline is not the worst student in the classroom.” He said.

Another financial analyst notes that Worldline “has almost broken with these practices (denounced in press articles, note) since 2023 and that the impact has already been translated into the results”. But “the group faces a risk of reputation now”. “Will they continue to lose customers and market share? Impossible to say at this stage. But they didn’t need that,” he concludes.

Worldline has chained results in recent years. Beyond that of October 2023, the group accused of “profit warnings” in July 2024 and yet another in September of the same year. This ended up causing the departure of the Managing Director, Gilles Grapinet. The latest annual results have, moreover, been disappointing.

AlphaValue points to three risks, in particular a deterioration of relations with the Visa and Mastercard card networks or even regulatory fines if it is proven that the group was actually an accomplice of fraud.

The independent design office also mentions a reputation risk to customers, but also suppliers and employees. “Although it is difficult to quantify the precise impact on income and profits, the prospect of rapid recovery seems more and more distant,” he says.

“Although we do not know the full extent of the current survey (other articles have been mentioned), a violation of the regulations could increase the risk of regulatory intervention or sanctions,” warns Jefferies. “In addition, we see the most important impact on the feeling (on the market, editor’s note), since we do not yet know to what extent internal processes and controls must be reviewed,” added the bank.

The action collapsed by 90.6% over three years. Deutsche Bank wanted to believe, in a recent note, that the arrival of the new managing director, Pierre-Antoine Vacheron, would mark “a new era” for the company.

“The allegations concerning active commitment to high -risk intermediaries and the continuation of this commitment against the recommendations of the internal risks department can increase the negative feeling with regard to the current business practices of the company and suggest that the new director general, Pierre Vacheron has a more important task to accomplish that we thought,” writes Jefferies.

“Overall, despite the drop in the course of action today, we think that the level of risk surrounding Worldline remains too high at this stage,” judges on his alphavalue side.