The French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR) in January 2020 approved a reinsurance captive in France for payment solutions provider Worldline.

The approval marks the first in almost 20 years, and only the fourth reinsurance captive in France.

Worldline chose France as a jurisdiction based on the advice of Willis Towers Watson (WTW), which supported Worldline throughout all aspects of the process, from the initial opportunity study to the issuance of the regulatory approval and all of the required steps involved in the creation of the reinsurance captive.

A spokesperson for the company said that the captive affords Worldline an “essential tool” to help in risk management and negotiations with insurers, and predicted they will be followed by other reinsurance captive launches in France in coming months.