PayPal’s CEO Dan Schulman has written an article in the Wall Street Journal; he believes that while technology generally has improved the lives of many, the potential of applying technology to expanding financial services is still unrealized; most people manage their money the same way they did years ago and fees paid by Americans still total $170 billion every year; Schulman believes that collaboration is key to achieving universal financial health. Source
There has been talk about one the big tech firms becoming a bank and potentially forever changing financial services; event without a banking license big tech firms are making noise in the finance market; Amazon and PayPal have been extending billions in loans and banks have started testing technologies like Alexa; the tech firms have also amassed a trove of data that could end up being as important as banking data; as banks become more digitized we will begin seeing a further mixing of interests to help offer the best experience as possible to the customer. Source.
Companies like TransferWise, Venmo and PayPal have forced banks in Europe to look at creating their own affordable real-time payments service; the idea is in the early stages but it shows the effect that fintech players can have on the traditional banks; the service would also look to head off the increased competitive threat from open banking which is set to begin in early 2018. Source.
PayPal is connecting with Acorns, an automated savings/investing platform; users will be able to contribute and manage their account from the PayPal app; the first users will get access today which will expand access to all US users by early 2018; PayPal previously has invested in Acorns, leading a $30 million round. Source
PayPal has launched a new service, Money Pools, to allow users to create fundraising pages where their network can contribute; the pages are similar to other crowdfunding sites but with a greater emphasis on social media; the thought is this can become another revenue generating product for PayPal, though they currently are not charging for the use of Money Pools. Source.
While speaking on Business Insider’s podcast “Success! How I Did It” Affirm CEO Max Levchin shared the story about how he started PayPal; Levchin moved out to Silicon Valley after starting a business that didn’t succeed and was sleeping on his friend’s floor; he saw Peter Thiel deliver a lecture and stayed after to chat with the then hedge fund manager; they met the next morning for breakfast and Thiel liked one of his two ideas, he decided to invest and that was the company that became PayPal. Source.
Raisin offers a platform to offer savings account options across Europe; they currently have over 100,000 customers; the funds will be used to accelerate growth across Europe. Source
PeerIQ's weekly update covers the recent partnership by Acorns and PayPal, household debt in the US and a new Bain survey that shows people are more willing to try fintech products; LendingClub filed its latest securitization deal for $330mn and Kroll upgraded all three classes of the Earnest EARN 2016-B deal; they also took a deep dive on TransUnions recently released fintech study. Source.
The $5.8 billion in receivables sold to Synchrony according to a TechCrunch article, “also includes Synchrony’s acquisition of $1 billion in participation interests in PayPal receivables held by certain investors and a chartered financial institution.”; the two companies have partnered since 2004 to offer PayPal users branded credit cards; Synchrony will now be the exclusive issuer of the PayPal Credit online consumer financing program. Source
PayPal has helped to secure the ability for Venmo payments to be accepted at over 2 million retailers; users will be able to make purchases in store and online using the Venmo app; the move will help PayPal to get merchants interested in other products and allows them to begin monetizing Venmo; the strategy is another piece of good news for PayPal as just this week they surpasses Amex in market cap. Source.