Worldline SA (EPA:WLN) and Crédit Agricole have announced an expansion of their partnership for merchant payment services in France, with Crédit Agricole acquiring 100% of CAWL.

The deal was completed on June 30, 2026.

The two groups are launching a new phase of their collaboration to continue the commercial momentum initiated by the partnership, while simplifying its operating structure, thus evolving their cooperation from an equity-based model to a commercial partnership.

To that end, Crédit Agricole acquires all shares held by the Worldline group in CAWL, thus becoming its sole shareholder and maintaining the initial ambition to make CAWL a major player in merchant payment services in France. CAWL, for its part, will continue to integrate Worldline group acceptance solutions into its offerings to build on the initial success achieved within the framework of the partnership.

Initiated in 2023, the partnership between Worldline and Crédit Agricole aims to provide innovative and competitive payment solutions to merchants in France. It has already enabled the commercialisation of offers for merchants who are clients of Crédit Agricole’s regional banks and LCL. Moreover, the combination of Worldline’s acceptance solutions with Crédit Agricole’s acquiring solutions has allowed the two groups to win a significant number of tenders from large merchants over the past two years.

Pierre-Antoine Vacheron, Chief Executive Officer of Worldline, says:

“Our collaboration with Crédit Agricole is evolving from an equity-based model to a commercial partnership, with the same ambition to best serve the needs of Crédit Agricole’s clients. This operation is part of the strategic refocus of our Group initiated in 2025. We remain fully committed alongside Crédit Agricole, a trusted long-term partner and reference shareholder.

France is a strategic market for Worldline, and we intend to continue pursuing our ambitions there, by continuing to innovate and roll out our offers in cooperation with Crédit Agricole, as illustrated by the joint announcement on June 25 of France’s first agentic payment transaction.”

Gérald Grégoire Deputy General Manager of Crédit Agricole S.A., in charge of the Customer, Development, and Innovation division:

“Payments are a strategic business for the Crédit Agricole group and a matter of European sovereignty. We will capitalize on the commercial momentum of CAWL started with the Worldline teams, and will continue to innovate to support all of our merchant clients. Worldline is a European payments player and a major partner of Crédit Agricole.”