What

Worldline is a France-based global payments and transactional services and solutions provider. Founded in 1972, Worldline has more than 18,000 employees spanning the globe, generating more than $4B in revenue in 2022. The company works with more than one million businesses worldwide.

Why

To Justin Passalaqua, Country Director at Worldline, payments flows are a crucial node that help build and sustain consumer trust. “As financial payment providers, we have to stay ahead of [fraud], because that’s the main thing we do—we provide a secure way for people to transact,” he said. “We spend a lot of money year over year to boost our systems and innovate and try to figure out how we can get ahead of that.”

E-commerce experiences arguably define how consumers understand digital cash, and as such should matter to the fintech sector writ large. And balancing security with seamlessness helps consumers both trust these platforms, while avoiding consumer leakages or frustration.

“There’s always this fine balance between the software providers of the world and the payments and security providers of the world,” Passalaqua said. “We have to kind of meet in the middle and say, ‘We feel this is safe, and it won't be too hard for your customer to buy.’”

How

Worldline has redoubled its security-focused operations and product development. From on-screen authentications to captcha, Worldline committed to enhancing its regulatory operations and systems year over year to ensure compliance and consumer and business trust.

In addition, given the balance between seamlessness and security, Passalaqua anticipates ongoing negotiation between payments and security teams to ensure the right calibration. Notably, Passalaqua mentioned that consumers have grown accustomed to security features like dual authentication. With that standard established, merchants may feel less hesitant about more stringent security features leading to leakages—helping further secure payments flows and bolster consumer trust.

In the coming year, Worldline is focusing on security protocols for the two platforms it operates in North America. “There will be a PCI 4.0 heavy lift for everyone,” Passalaqua noted.