Reconciliation in sight on the payments market. Indeed, Crédit Agricole has entered into discussions with Wordline with a view to establishing a partnership with the French specialist in payment services, according to Bloomberg.
Several options are on the table, such as the creation of a joint venture or the development of joint service offers, but an acquisition of Wordline by the mutual bank does not seem to be on the agenda. According Bloombergtalks are still at an early stage and an agreement is not expected until next year.
Erase Wirecard’s sulphurous memory
If the discussions prove conclusive, Wordline would then allow Crédit Agricole to replace its former German partner, Wirecard, which went bankrupt in 2020 after a scandal amid accounting manipulations. Time is running out as the tricolor bank needs a partner to increase its payment unit’s overall revenue by 20% by 2025.
This partnership is all the more critical as Crédit Agricole, like all traditional banks, have been shaken up in recent years by the arrival of start-ups such as Adyen, Stripe or even Lydia, which have captured the data of many consumers. in the payment circuit, with innovations that have overtaken historical players. In this context, joining forces with Worldline, a company separated from Atos since 2019 and valued at 12.3 billion euros on the stock market, appears to be a logical and necessary operation for Crédit Agricole, forced to reinvent itself quickly to continue.
In 2020, the company led by Gilles Grapinet distinguished itself by buying Ingenico, the world leader in payment terminals, for 7.8 billion euros, before selling its main activity (TSS) to the American fund Apollo less two years later. Even for Wordline, despite earning $10 billion in market capitalization in eight years, innovating isn’t easy.