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March 29, 2022
On the wires
PayPal Broadens Access to Its Post Purchase Services for Merchants to Help Manage Increasing Return Volumes
“PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL), today announced it is delivering more ways to help retailers manage returns by enabling merchants who offer PayPal Checkout to use the Happy Returns return and exchange portal software at no additional cost1. Additionally, the company has partnered with Ulta Beauty which increases the total number of Happy Returns Return Bar locations to more than 5,000. As online shopping has continued to accelerate during Covid, average return rates have increased to more than 20%, making it more important than ever for merchants to manage their post-purchase processes more effectively.”
February 9, 2022
On the wires
PayPal Welcomes Leading Experts in Distributed Technology, Economics and Regulation to Blockchain, Crypto and Digital Currencies Advisory Council
“As a global leader in commerce and payments with bold ambitions for shaping how blockchain, crypto, digital currencies will provide increased access to financial services in the near term, we believe it is crucial to engage with the world’s best leaders to better understand the industry’s most compelling opportunities and complex challenges. To support not only our current and future products in the space but our broader mission of leading the way towards a more affordable, efficient and inclusive digital financial system, we have established a cross-disciplinary advisory council on Blockchain, Crypto and Digital Currencies (BCDC) comprised of some of the world’s leading experts in cryptography, distributed technology, regulation, economics, and capital markets.”
February 3, 2022
On the web
PayPal Gets Stung by ‘Bad Actors,’ Shuts 4.5 Million Accounts
Bloomberg
“PayPal Holdings Inc. said it closed 4.5 million accounts and lowered its forecast for new customers after finding “bad actors” were taking advantage of its incentives and rewards programs. Shares of the company fell by the most on record. The payments giant, which is also overhauling its marketing strategy, said it no longer expects to achieve 750 million active accounts by 2025, abandoning a goal that contributed to a jump in spending last year on sales campaigns.”
January 31, 2022
On the web
PayPal Launches Payment After 30 Days in Germany
Ecommerce News
“PayPal is expanding its ‘Pay later’ offer in Germany. This week, it has announced the launch of its new payment option ‘Payment after 30 days’. Customers can select the new option for purchases up to 1.000 euros and pay for it after 30 days without additional costs.”
January 18, 2022
On the web
PayPal Sued for Freezing Customer Accounts Without Explanation
Bloomberg
“PayPal Holdings Inc. , a popular digital payment platform, violated racketeering laws by freezing customer money and refusing to provide an explanation for the move, three account holders alleged in a federal lawsuit. PayPal, which has an estimated 325 million account holders worldwide, put a hold of as long as six months on funds for alleged violations of its 65-page user agreement, according to the complaint filed Thursday in California.”
January 7, 2022
Top Post
PayPal Explores Launch of Own Stablecoin in Crypto Push
Bloomberg
“PayPal Holdings Inc. is exploring the launch of its own stablecoin as part of its cryptocurrency push, according to the company, which confirmed the development after evidence of the move was discovered inside its iPhone app…Evidence of the company’s exploration into building a stablecoin was first discovered in PayPal’s app by developer Steve Moser and shared with Bloomberg. Hidden code and images show work on what is dubbed a “PayPal Coin.” The code indicates such a coin would be backed by the U.S. dollar. A PayPal spokeswoman said that the images and code inside of the PayPal app stemmed from a recent internal hackathon — an event in which engineers team up to quickly explore and build new products that may never see a public release — within the company’s blockchain, crypto and digital currencies division. That means the ultimate logo, name and features could change in its public product form.”
December 20, 2021
On the web
PayPal Misled Investors About Student Credit Product, Suit Says
bloomberglaw
“PayPal Holdings Inc.’s directors and top executives misled investors about compliance problems that sparked a CFPB probe into the company’s marketing of credit products to students and other consumers, a new shareholder suit says. The leaders of the San Jose, Calif.-based company “failed to disclose compliance issues” with its PayPal Credit product in SEC filings between February 2017 and July 2021, shareholder Shang Pang said in a complaint filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The defendants, including PayPal President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Schulman, touted compliance with a 2015 Consumer Financial Protection …”
December 1, 2021
On the web
PayPal Saw Use of Its Buy Now, Pay Later Option Soar Nearly 400% on Black Friday, CEO Says
CNBC
“PayPal CEO Dan Schulman told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday that use of the company’s buy now, pay later option surged on Black Friday. In an interview on “Mad Money,” Schulman said PayPal’s installment payment service is “one of the stars, actually, of the holiday season for us.” “During Black Friday, our volume on buy now, pay later was up almost 400% year over year. We did some 750,000 transactions alone in one day on Black Friday,” Schulman said, referring to the day after Thanksgiving that’s a key part of the holiday shopping season.”
October 27, 2021
On the wires
PayPal Launches the Zettle Terminal – Its New All-in-one POS Solution for Small Businesses
“PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) today announced the launch of the Zettle Terminal , its new, all-in-one point of sale solution that offers increased mobility in-store for small businesses. The Zettle Terminal will be available in the UK beginning today and will continue to roll-out across additional markets in Europe in 2021 and into 2022, and in the U.S. next year. With its sleek design, the Zettle Terminal is ready to go right out of the box, no need for a second device to pair it with.”
October 25, 2021
On the web
PayPal Coming to Bangladesh Soon
Dhaka Tribune
“After much speculation and several false starts, popular online payment system PayPal is said to be launched in Bangladesh by December, at the end of this year. Salman F Rahman, private industry and investment adviser to the prime minister, mentioned this to reporters during his visit to a Walton factory at Chandra in Gazipur on Saturday. A Walton official, however, clarified to Dhaka Tribune that Walton was not involved with PayPal and its Bangladesh operations in any way.”
October 20, 2021
On the web
PayPal Is Exploring a Purchase of Pinterest
Bloomberg
“PayPal Holdings Inc. is exploring an acquisition of social media company Pinterest Inc. , people with knowledge of the matter said. San Jose, California-based PayPal has recently approached Pinterest about a potential deal, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private. The companies have discussed a potential price of around $70 a share, the people said.”
October 5, 2021
On the wires
Honey Expands Shopping Rewards With Introduction of Cash Back Through PayPal
“Honey, today, announced the introduction of cash back through PayPal, a new option for US users to redeem Honey Gold reward points earned while shopping online. Users who link their Honey and eligible PayPal accounts will be able to redeem Gold points for cash through PayPal, providing more choices to save and spend how they want.”
September 13, 2021
On the web
PayPal Raises Fees Between UK and Europe
BBC News
“PayPal is introducing new fees for payments between businesses in the UK and those in Europe, from November. British businesses will be charged a 1.29% fee for payments from the European Economic Area and vice versa. Most currently pay about 0.5% in similar charges, which have remained unchanged since before the UK left the EU customs union and single market. PayPal said it was now incurring extra costs, such as the rise in interchange fees between the UK and EEA. European rules capping credit and debit card interchange fees at 0.2% and 0.3% no longer apply to UK businesses. And both Visa and Mastercard have announced they will raise them fivefold from mid-October.”
September 3, 2021
On the wires
PayPal and Mastercard Continues Expansion of Popular Debit Card Offering Across Europe
“PayPal (Nasdaq: PYPL) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA) announced that they are continuing the global expansion of the popular PayPal Business Debit Mastercard in four new European countries – Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, and Portugal. This is in addition to Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and United States where the PayPal Business Debit Mastercard is currently available.”
August 30, 2021
On the web
PayPal Is Exploring a Stock-trading Platform for Its U.S. Customers
CNBC
“PayPal is exploring a possible stock-trading platform. After rolling out the ability to trade cryptocurrencies last year, the payments giant has been exploring ways to let users trade individual stocks, according to two sources familiar with the plans, and public details around a new executive hire.”
July 30, 2021
On the web
PayPal Builds Services As EBay Breaks Away
Payments Dive
“PayPal is aggressively adding new features for merchants, like in-store services, to shore up profits as its historic online marketplace partner, EBay, breaks away from the tie. PayPal has known for years that EBay planned to break away, and now the divorce is finally happening…While the company’s business of offering online payment services to merchants continues to benefit from online shopping triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, PayPal executives are focused on rolling out new in-store products to complement their digital services. The company recently introduced its Zettle point-of-sale system in the U.S. market to that end. “
June 30, 2021
On the web
PayPal Makes In-store Payments Push As It Launches Zettle POS Reader in the US | ZDNet
ZDNet
“In a major push for the in-store point-of-sale market, PayPal said Wednesday that it’s launching its Zettle POS system in the US two years after acquiring the Swedish fintech company for $2.2 billion . PayPal is known primarily as provider of online payment services, as well as for its Venmo and Braintree product portfolio. With Zettle, PayPal will now be able to serve in-store small businesses in the US with a complete point-of-sale system and Zettle’s new POS reader.”
June 21, 2021
On the wires
TRM Labs Raises $14 Million Series A Funding Round
“TRM Labs, a pioneer in blockchain intelligence, announced today that it has closed a $14 Million Series A funding round. Bessemer led the Series A with additional participation from PayPal Ventures, Initialized Capital, Jump Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Operator Partners, Blockchain Capital, and executives from Google. Other existing investors include Y Combinator, Alumni Ventures Group, The MBA Fund, Tapas Capital, SGH Capital…TRM’s platform integrates with more than a dozen blockchains, and analyzes billions of virtual asset transactions to detect in real-time signs of fraud and financial crime like money laundering. The increase in adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies worldwide is driving global, financial institutions including major banks, brokerages, and exchanges across US, Latin America, Asia, and Europe to turn to TRM for cryptocurrency compliance and risk management solutions.”
Upcoming Changes for Some US Businesses
“We are making changes to our published rates in the United States to better align our pricing with the value that our products and services provide. Our goal is to be transparent and upfront with our customers about the changes. These rates will apply to a portion of our merchant customers in the U.S. beginning August 2, 2021. We began notifying some customers today, and you can find a notice on our Policy Updates page … Why are we making this change? As PayPal has been evolving our business alongside our merchant business partners, we have accelerated the rollout of products, features, and capabilities, delivering more benefits than ever before. With this, PayPal has become more than just a button or payment processor to be a full commerce platform capable of driving growth for businesses of all sizes online or in person.”
June 7, 2021
On the web
PayPal Taps Into the NPP for Instant Transfers to Bank Accounts
iTnews
“PayPal has introduced a new feature enabling transfers from PayPal balance to domestic bank accounts and Visa debit cards within one minute. The feature uses the New Payment Platform (NPP) through PayPal’s partnership with the National Australia Bank (NAB) and Visa’s real-time payments platform, Visa Direct. It is available for transfers as low as $2 with maximum transfers dependant on individual consumer history. Through Visa Direct, the feature also allows users to send domestic instant transfers to eligible Visa debit cards.”
May 26, 2021
On the web
PayPal Will Let Customers Withdraw Crypto, Exec Says
CoinDesk
“Global payments giant PayPal plans to let users withdraw cryptocurrency to third-party wallets, its blockchain lead said. Speaking Wednesday at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2021 conference, Jose Fernandez da Ponte told moderator Jeff John Roberts that a withdrawal function is in the works. At present, PayPal does not let users move cryptocurrency holdings off-platform, though it has let customers buy and other cryptocurrencies since October 2020.”
May 25, 2021
On the wires
PayPal Turns to Arkose Labs for Online Fraud and Abuse Protection on Honey Platform
“Arkose Labs , provider of online fraud and abuse prevention technology, today announced a collaboration with PayPal to prevent security threats and fight fraud on its Honey shopping and rewards platform. Honey by PayPal is a suite of free tools to help people save time and money when shopping online. From notifying shoppers when a price drops on select items, to helping them find the lowest price, Honey provides shoppers with the information that they need to shop with confidence. Honey has helped millions of people find more than $1 billion in savings in the past year.”
May 14, 2021
On the web
PayPal to Buy Online Returns Start-up in Its Latest Run at the Retail Shopping Space
CNBC
“PayPal is making another acquisition in the e-commerce space as it moves beyond payments and into physical and online retail. The digital payments giant announced a deal to acquire start-up Happy Returns on Thursday for an undisclosed amount. The 120-person Santa Monica-based company lets people return things they bought online, in person…The acquisition will help solve sometimes messy logistics of returning and shipping items for merchants, and help drive foot traffic to those businesses as the economy reopens, Keller said. Eventually, he expects the product to incentivize more merchants to sign up for PayPal products. The company, founded by Max Levchin and Peter Thiel, works with roughly 31 million businesses that will eventually have access to the in-person returns network.”
May 13, 2021
On the wires
PayPal Accelerates Its Digital Transformation With Google Cloud to Support Customer Needs During Pandemic–and Beyond
“Google Cloud and PayPal today announced they are deepening their relationship to further accelerate PayPal’s digital transformation and evolving customer needs. Under this expanded relationship, Google Cloud will provide both infrastructure and analytics capabilities to support PayPal’s growth, helping the company process transactional data at massive scale.”
May 11, 2021
On the web
Munich Airport – First Airport in Europe With Integrated PayPal QR Code
ftnnews
“Munich Airport becomes the first airport in Europe to introduce PayPal QR Code – a mobile and cash-free payment system – in all stores and businesses of the Eurotrade retail subsidiary…The new QR code will be seamlessly integrated into the processes of existing check-out systems including accounting. The payment process for this is as secure as it is uncomplicated: if customers would like to pay, they open the QR code in the PayPal app on their smartphone and show it to the cashier. The cashier scans the code and the amount to be paid is shown directly in the app. Next, customers select their preferred payment method stored in their PayPal account – for example bank account or credit card – and confirm the payment on their smartphone. Customers as well as cashiers immediately receive a confirmation of the successful transaction.”
May 10, 2021
On the web
PayPal Wants to Be a Lot More Than an Online Checkout Button
Bloomberg
“PayPal Holdings Inc. is eyeing life beyond the checkout button. In the coming months, the firm is planning to debut a bevy of new services, which could include high-yield savings accounts, check-cashing services and stock-investing capabilities. It’s all being done in the hopes of PayPal becoming the world’s next “super app,” akin to China’s Alipay or WeChat, India’s Paytm or Singapore’s Grab. The stakes are high: If PayPal pulls it off, the company could become a bigger part of U.S. consumers’ lives than Amazon, Google or Facebook. But, in the U.S., there is no shortage of banking giants and technology firms that have tried and failed to accomplish what PayPal wants to do.”
May 6, 2021
On the web
PayPal Sees Record Earnings, Volume Amid Sustained E-commerce Surge
MarketWatch
“The company saw a record $285 billion in total payments volume, or the value of activity occurring on its platform. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were modeling TPV of $264.7 billion. With the first-quarter performance, PayPal’s TPV on a trailing-12-month basis topped $1 trillion for the first time. The company added 14.5 million net new active accounts overall. PayPal saw 4.4 billion transactions in the quarter and 42.2 transactions per active account on a trailing-12-month basis. The number of daily active accounts for the core PayPal product rose 33%. Schulman said that newer services are helping to drive increased engagement. About half of customers who’ve tried PayPal’s buy-now-pay-later service used the feature again within three months, with that number rising to 70% over six months.”
April 27, 2021
On the web
Paypal CEO Talks Cryptocurrency And The Rise Of Super Apps
Time
“The fintech giant had a record year as the pandemic drove shoppers from stores. Instead, they bought groceries, movies and underwear on their phones and computers. PayPal does business in more than 200 countries and deals in more than 100 currencies. It did a staggering amount of business last year, processing transactions at a rate of 1,000 per second during the peak holiday shopping season. In total, PayPal processed 15.4 billion payments, with a value of $936 billion last year.”
April 20, 2021
On the web
PayPal to Launch Local Wallet in China Focused on Cross-border Payments
CNBC
“PayPal plans to set up a local wallet in China focused on cross-border payments. In January, the U.S. fintech company became the first foreign firm with 100% ownership of a payments platform in China. But until now, PayPal’s been quiet on its plans. Hannah Qiu, the China CEO for PayPal, told CNBC that the company is looking to launch a domestic wallet. But instead of it competing with the dominant players Alipay and WeChat Pay for domestic payments, PayPal will focus on cross-border payments.”
April 15, 2021
On the web
CEO Says PayPal’s Crypto Commerce May Reach $200M Volume in Just Months
Cointelegraph
“As the price of Bitcoin continues to reach new all-time highs , major corporations with existing crypto offerings in place are beginning to discuss grand plans for the future. Most recently, Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal, hinted at future developments for PayPal’s crypto offering during Forbes’ “ 2021 Blockchain 50 Symposium: Crypto Goes Corporate ,” an online event that took place on April 13. During a fireside chat with Michael del Castillo, associate editor at Forbes, Schulman mentioned that the financial system will undergo more changes over the next five years compared to the progress that has been made in the previous 30 years.”
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