2023-11-12 18:00:31
A giant breakdown, huge disruptions, but “no cyberattack”
On the weekend of October 22, 2023, hundreds of consumers from major brands had to leave their shopping carts behind in France without being able to return with their shopping. Carrefour, Monoprix and even Ikea: very big names were affected by a sudden IT outage, disrupting the acceptance of bank cards from all Worldline customer networks for almost an hour, a French fintech, spearhead in the security of payments and transactions and one of the world leaders in the field.
On the Worldline side, the group wants to be reassuring and has limited itself to mentioning “certain disruptions (…) resolved by the group’s teams“. For the brands affected, on the other hand, the inconvenience, although occasional, was nevertheless pronounced: thousands of batches were put back on the shelves, or even thrown away due to a break in the cold chain. The incident also did not prevent the group from being quickly sanctioned by the markets. «If the financial impact is a priori minimal, this outage gives bad publicity to Worldline while the stock has suffered a violent derating over the past 18 to 24 months.»analyzedin the process, the Invest Securities firm, while the group lost 5% of its value on Monday, October 23.
A big blow for fintech, already weakened by an international macroeconomic environment currently unfavorable for technology stocks, which are bearing the brunt of the rise in key rates. No infinite growth therefore, for the giants of payment security solutions, who are also facing a strong return to cash. Indeed, the decline in the use of fiat money following the health crisis was ultimately only cyclical.
In Sweden, laws favor cash
The trend towards the disappearance of cash indeed seems to be reducing. For several years now. Even Sweden, which had established itself as the pilot country for the disappearance of cash, is going backwards. In 2020, the country forced businesses to accept cash, which in 2016 only represented 15% of payments. A year earlier, in November 2019, a law requiring banks to make cash available to populations was passed. “Electronic payment has many advantages, but we must also be able to use cash. Elderly people, disabled people, those who have just arrived in Sweden must be able to pay in cash», explained to the Swiss newspaper The weather former Minister of Financial Markets Per Bolund.
In France too, cash is coming back through the front door. If the number of ATMs indeed seems to be decreasing, their absolute number is stagnating, or even increasing with the phenomenon of ATM pooling between large banking institutions to rationalize costs.. The phenomenon is even, in relative value, increasing significantly, taking into account the transposition of the cash back directive in 2019, which allows all merchants who wish to do so to return paper money following a payment by bank card, thus allowing better access to cash in isolated areas. A sign of this trend, the market for cash payment points is even growing, with the launch, at the beginning of 2021, of the “Point Cash Service” solution by Brink’s. It allows cash payment for products or services purchased online from a network of partners.
Private life, social connection: cash remains popular
Cash is therefore still popular despite the limitation of amounts, which prohibits cash payments beyond 1,000 euros. And particularly among the youngest, attracted by the prospects of confidentiality linked to cash and the certainty of not being targeted retrospectively by online promotional and marketing campaigns. In 2021an IFOP survey for Monnaie de Paris stated that 91% of French people used small change on a regular basis, and 70% on a daily basis. “The French are committed to respecting privacy, and are aware that only cash payment remains completely confidential and commission-free. An essential freedom in their eyes,” underlines Patrice Galiana, division director at IFOP, at the origin of the study. Some new payment methods are even struggling to convince, such as the smartphone, which only enjoys the trust of 8% of French people.
Above all, cash also remains an “inclusive” solution. For the visually impaired, for example, who benefit from “braille” type devices on tickets or even people without a bank account. 80% of respondents affirm that a world with dematerialized money would be a world with declining solidarity.
In short, if this giant outage at Wordline was able to demonstrate that dematerialized payment systems were far from being completely secure, it also proves that all-digital money remains, for the moment, a pipe dream. “Beyond its daily use, cash continues to play a role in our society, for transmission between generations, education, and solidarity. explains Marc Schwartz, CEO of Monnaie de Paris.
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