About the future of money there are opinions (and fantasies) for all tastes. The hard and fast reality indicates that digital payments have gained ground over cash, but are far from displacing it. They simplify the lives of citizens, there is no doubt about that. For this to happen and for the beneficiaries to perceive it in this way, some actors are needed that the common user barely knows that they exist: the specialists speak of a four-cornered model.
Essential summary: the user buys from a business (or a hotel, an airline or the provider of an online service) and the amount is charged to their account. For this transaction to come to a successful conclusion, two other interlocutors (or corners) must intervene: a financial intermediary called the acquirer and some networks of means of payment or schemes, with Visa and Mastercard as the best known. The model is enriched with more actors, which are not exactly corners: they deal with acceptance (payment gateway) or authorization between different acquirers and networks.
This is how David Valero, director of Merchant Services at Worldline, enters the scene. This division contributes 70% of the group's total income –of 2,020 million euros in the first half of the year. It is the European leader by volume of managed transactions and number four in the world table, preceded by three American rivals. No Chinese group appears –for now– in this global competition.
“Worldline's objective is clear: to continue growing both organically and inorganically. Because size matters in this globalized market, which is combined with the need for a local presence”.
In the last two years, Worldline has acquired several companies in various countries: one in Italy, two in Greece, another that covers the Nordic countries... And everything indicates that it will continue like this, because it intends, says Valero, to "globally serve the national clients and locally to international ones. There is everything: supermarkets, fashion chains, luxury brands or companies like Ikea, which asked us for a specific solution that was not the same as the one they have with us in France or the one they have in Sweden or Norway; I say this to point out that the characteristics of each country are relevant in this business. We are global, but we have to respect existing local schemes, such as in Portugal, Italy or Belgium”.
Is this an omen of concentration in the sector? "Yes and no. The atomization also plays, because we have to be in many countries; likewise, the local nuclei must be open, because in each country there are niche actors that must be integrated into the solution that we offer to trade”. There will be at least one communications standard. Not at all. "That is the trend and there is even an ISO standard, but in Spain, for example, it is essential to use the Redsys protocol, a consortium that is controlled by the banks."
Cards continue to be the dominant means of payment, but they are increasingly combined with mobile payments, which have gained popularity during the pandemic. The novelties that are shaking up the market come from financial initiatives: one is account-to-account debits (Worldline has already integrated Bizum, but Redsys is still considering it) and BNPL, an acronym for buy now and pay later, which awakens interest in one of the corners, commerce, and misgivings in another, the banks.
With the arrival of these and other novelties – cryptocurrencies are lurking there – Valero concludes, “we all need to reinvent ourselves, we cannot ignore any movement”.
