Worldline, HEC Paris and the HEC Foundation join forces to explore the future of payments

Worldline, a global leader in payment services, HEC Paris and the HEC Foundation are continuing their long-standing collaboration with the creation of the "The Future of Money" Chair. The three-year partnership aims to develop knowledge about payments through research and education and to train future talent in the sector.

This Chair will be headed by David Restrepo Amariles, Associate Professor of Law and Artificial Intelligence at HEC Paris and holder since 2019 of the course 'The Future of Money: Innovations and Policy'. Professor Restrepo will coordinate research around innovation in payments and digital currencies, payments infrastructure and technology ecosystem, regulation, data analytics and new business models in the payments industry. This research aims to publish in leading academic journals, develop prototypes, write media articles, case studies, and organise international conferences.

This partnership will give Worldline the opportunity to participate in three master's level elective courses at HEC Paris on "The Future of Money and Payments" thematics. Worldline experts will speak on diverse topics, based on concrete use cases developed by the Group. These electives focus on technology, digital strategy and regulation of money and payments and are offered within the CEMS International Business Master’s in Management programme, the Digital Business programme and the LLM in International Law and Management.

The Chair will also lead to the creation of a unique teaching certificate in the payments industry, "The Future of Money and Payments", which will be offered to final year Masters, MBA and Executive MBA students starting from spring 2024.

In addition, the new Worldline Chair will support the new Centre "The Future of Money and Digital Assets" at HEC Paris. This centre will have the mission of creating a network of key players, academics and experts from different backgrounds - investors, regulators, banks and central banks, start-ups, etc. - around payment problematics and techniques. The Centre will host researchers on campus, organise workshops and conferences on these themes and will also aim to stimulate innovation, development and entrepreneurship in coordination with HEC Paris ecosystem and HEC Incubator based at
Station F.

This Chair is part of an already long-standing cooperation between Worldline and HEC Paris, notably with the joint creation of several education programmes since 2014.

Eloïc Peyrache, Dean and Managing Director of HEC Paris: “The signing of this partnership marks a next step in a long-term collaboration focused on teaching and research. This Chair will allow us to deepen and disseminate knowledge about the payment sector and its future, as we at HEC Paris are keen to contribute both from an ethical and a technological point of view to the concrete problems of our world.”

Gilles Grapinet, CEO of Worldline, says: “The Paytech industry is an absolutely fascinating world, with technologies that are part of every citizen's daily life. Secure, regulated and highly innovative, this sector needs more than ever experts of excellence. In order to encourage and inspire vocations, Worldline has long wanted to participate in the creation of training courses and programmes that will enable us to draw the best talents from the source. This partnership allows us to make our vision a reality and we are delighted to be associated with the prestigious institution of HEC Paris, to help students discover our businesses and reflect on the major technological issues in the sector alongside talented professors and students."

Olivier Sevillia, President of the HEC Foundation, adds: "We are delighted with this new phase of the partnership with Worldline, which will foster knowledge, new ideas and innovations in the payments sector. Thanks to the support of its patrons, the Foundation gives HEC the means to explore new fields of research and to irrigate its programmes with innovative content that directly benefits the participants.”