Worldline, the firm under scrutiny after an international investigative report alleged that it knowingly processed transactions for “questionable” clients involved in fraud, scams and phishing, has a Maltese link, maintaining an office in St Julian’s while courting customers in the country’s large iGaming sector.
One of Europe’s largest payment processors, Worldline offers the PaymentIQ platform, which is specifically designed for the iGaming industry. The platform was originally developed by Swedish firm DevCode, which launched in 2007. In 2012, it moved into the payments space, and launched a Malta office in 2014 “in order to better service current and future iGaming clients based on the island.”
An old website lists several local gaming giants among the customers using PaymentIQ at the time, including Leo Vegas, Betsson, Caumo and Mr Green.
In 2017, what was then known as DevCode Payment – which is still the name of the locally registered firm – was sold to payments group Bambora for an undisclosed sum.
Bambora was then acquired by Ingenico for €1.5 billion in 2017, while Ingenico was in turn acquired by Worldline in a €7.8 billion deal.
Ingenico is best known locally for its point-of-sale terminals, found in shops across the islands. This line of business is no longer owned by Worldine, having been sold to US private equity firm Apollo Global Management in 2022 for €2.3 billion.
The Maltese office, while still appearing as DevCode Payment on the Malta Business Registry and on Worldline’s own website, now operates under the Worldline Merchant Services brand, while retaining the PaymentIQ product brand.
DevCode Payments Ltd regularly files its accounts with the MBR, with the latest submitted in late April 2025. The company makes use of legal provisions for small companies and is therefore not obliged to submit a profit and loss account.
Worldline has made headlines across the financial media after an investigation by the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) network. Citing confidential internal documents and data, the reports claim that Worldline consistently allowed fraudulent transactions to go unchallenged in favour of retaining high-revenue clients.
The “Dirty Payments” investigation, a collaborative effort involving 21 European media outlets, alleged that Payone, a company in which Worldline holds a 60 per cent stake, processed payments worth hundreds of millions of euro by high-risk clients involved in pornography and gambling without the minimum checks required by law.
The lack of internal oversight also allowed fraudulent activity to proliferate, and was often actively covered up, alleges the report.
A worldline subsidiary would process the transactions of an Indian software company that sold dubious software by sending pop-ups to people’s phones claiming that a virus has infected their device.
In another example, another Worldline subsidiary would service a fraudulent dating site that operated romance scams on unsuspecting people, while another would service ecommerce websites from which customers ordered products that were never delivered.
The report claims that Worldline would shift fraudulent customers from one division to another to avoid raising suspicion.
In its public statement, Worldline said: “All High Brand Risk (HBR) clients still active within this portfolio are now subject to enhanced oversight, based on specific procedures. Additional requirements in terms of controls, verifications and evidence documentation have been introduced to ensure ongoing alignment with regulatory obligations and our enhanced internal standards.”
The company added: “Since 2023, the group has strengthened its merchant risk framework to ensure full compliance with laws and regulations, conducted a thorough review of its HBR portfolio – which currently accounts for approximately 1.5 per cent of its acquired volumes, and has terminated commercial relationships deemed non-compliant with its strengthened merchant risk framework."
Despite these assurances, Worldline’s shares plummeted by over 41 per cent in a single day, reaching a record low. The stock is now down more than 90 per cent from 2021.
German regulator BaFin had already taken action in 2023, banning Worldline’s German subsidiary Payone from working with 450 clients due to compliance failures. Although there are currently no formal investigations publicly underway, the company continues to face mounting scrutiny from both media and market watchers.
WhosWho.mt reached out to Worldline for additional comments relating to its Malta offices, but no response has been received by the time of publication.
