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Sabadell, Worldline, Nexi and Fiserv declined to comment.

In a call, Chief Executive Gilles Grapinet told analysts he had never seen, in his ten years at the head of Worldline, so many banks, some significant ones among them, undertaking very deep strategic reviews of their payment activities.

Unions have also voiced grievances about BNL’s sale to Worldline of an 80% stake in its card payment processing business Axepta Italy.

The Handelsbanken deal follows Worldline’s acquisitions of Cardlink in Greece and Axepta in Italy, both announced during the first half.

Half-year sales came in at 2.27 billion euros, flat compared to a year earlier and in line with Worldline’s own guidance.