JPMorgan Said to Help Sell €200 Million of ECB’s Worldline Bonds

(Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co’s high-yield credit trading desk helped arrange the sale of a block of Worldline SA bonds held by the European Central Bank, according to people familiar with the matter.

The French payments company’s debt was sold piecemeal to fund managers in a deal worth as much as €200 million ($236 million) after the US lender spent several days last week helping to put together a large block of the bonds, the people said. It wasn’t immediately clear if other banks were also involved in selling the bonds.

The Financial Times first reported the ECB’s bond sale. Representatives for JPMorgan, Worldline and the ECB declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News.

The Worldline bonds were among those bought by the ECB as part of its so-called corporate sector purchase program — launched in 2016 to help spur economic activity and inflation in the euro area.

The ECB held on to the bonds as prices slumped in the summer after news reports alleging that Worldline had covered up fraud by some of its customers. S&P Global later lowered the notes’ credit rating into junk territory.

Worldline Cut to Junk by S&P on Expected Revenue Decline

The latest ECB data, which captures its portfolio as of Sept. 12, showed holdings in a €500 million Worldline note due 2027 and a €600 million issue maturing in 2028. The central bank doesn’t disclose the size of individual bond holdings and the securities only fall off its list if they are sold off entirely.

By last Friday, credit spreads on the two Worldline bonds had jumped to the widest level recorded since issuance, pricing compiled by Bloomberg showed. One of the people said the marketing process for the bond sale triggered the move.

Sales of large portions of junk-rated notes can be more price-disruptive than in the investment-grade market because the buyer base is much smaller.

The ECB’s corporate sector purchase program ended up ballooning to almost €350 billion by 2022. The CSPP was only intended for investment-grade bonds, but the ECB is not obliged to sell holdings once they have lost this status.

The central bank has stopped buying or even reinvesting maturing bonds, allowing it to shrink the portfolio to €258 billion as of early September.

–With assistance from Claudia Cohen.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.