By Gianluca Lo Nostro
(Reuters) -Worldline shares lost a third of their value on Wednesday after an investigation by 21 European media outlets alleged the French digital payments company covered up client fraud to protect revenue.
Responding to the reports, Worldline said in a statement that since 2023 it has strengthened merchant risk controls and terminated non-compliant client relationships.
The “Dirty Payments” investigation, which the media outlets said is based on confidential internal documents and data from Worldline, alleged the company accepted “questionable” clients across Europe, including pornography, gambling and dating sites.
The company said it has conducted a “thorough review” of its high-brand-risk portfolio, such as online casinos, stockbroking and adult dating services since 2023, affecting merchants representing 130 million euros in run-rate revenue in 2024.
It said it maintains “zero-tolerance” for non-compliance and engages regularly with regulatory authorities.
Reuters could not verify the allegations made by the outlets, part of the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) network.
When asked by Reuters to respond further, Worldline declined to comment beyond its statement.
Worldline’s shares fell as much as 34% in early Paris trading to an all-time low of 3.42 euros. They recovered to trade down 21% at 3.62 euros at 11.30CEST.
The stock has lost over 90% of its value since 2021.
Dutch newspaper NRC reported on Wednesday that Dutch central bank DNB opened an investigation into Worldline’s Dutch unit Global Collect Services in 2022, finding weak controls,
In response to that claim, the company told NRC it has stopped processing payments from a number of non-complying customers under pressure from the German regulator.
Financial and banking watchdogs AMF in France and DNB in the Netherlands could not be immediately reached for comment.
Worldline is one of Europe’s biggest payment processors with 500 billion euros worth of transactions handled annually.
The French group said all remaining high-brand-risk clients are now subject to enhanced oversight with additional control requirements.
(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro and Anna Pruchnicka in Gdansk, additional reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft and Mathieu Rosemain in Paris; Editing by Matt Scuffham)
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