PayPal expands payments services to help Ukrainian citizens, refugees

WASHINGTON - PayPal Holdings Inc expanded its services to allow Ukrainian citizens and refugees to receive payments from overseas, a move a senior Ukrainian official called a huge help as Russian forces continued to attack the country.

PayPal Chief Executive Dan Schulman told Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov in a letter that Ukrainians would also be able to transfer funds from their PayPal accounts to eligible credit and debit cards. The company has waived its fees on such transactions through June 30.

More than 3 million Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24, an action Russia has described as a "special military operation.".

PayPal's move will allow refugees and Ukrainians to receive funds from friends and family members in the United States and elsewhere, and could also be used to transfer social payments by governments in the future, said Vladyslav Rashkovan, Ukraine's alternative executive director at the International Monetary Fund.

"It makes a huge difference for people," Rashkovan told Reuters, lauding Schulman's personal engagement in accomplishing the change in just two weeks.

Rashkovan said he spoke with some Ukrainians on the street outside his office about the new capability and they immediately opened an account at PayPal.com/ua/home to send money to their relatives. Ukrainian officials have been pushing for the expanded services since 2015, after Russia annexed the Crimea region, he added.

PayPal said it would start making the expanded services available on Thursday, with customers able to send and receive funds from their Ukrainian PayPal Wallet in dollars, Canadian dollars, British pounds and euros.

Once a customer transfers funds from their PayPal Wallet to an eligible Visa or MasterCard debit or credit card, the money will be available in the currency associated with that card.

While PayPal is waiving its fees for several weeks, it noted exchange rates and fees charged by a customer’s card issuer or bank account may still apply.

Previously, Ukrainian citizens could send money from PayPal accounts, but were unable to receive funds.

PayPal earlier this month shut down its services in Russia, joining many financial and tech companies in suspending operations there after its invasion of Ukraine.

-reuters

eBay-PayPal breakup set for July

US online giant eBay said Friday its board approved the planned spinoff of its PayPal online payments unit, which will trade as an independent company July 20.

The plan calls for the distribution of PayPal stock to eBay shareholders on July 17, with the financial unit starting to trade under the symbol PYPL on July 20.

“eBay and PayPal are two great, special businesses,” said John Donahoe, president and chief executive of eBay.

“As separate, independent companies, eBay, led by Devin Wenig, and PayPal, led by Dan Schulman, will each have a sharper focus and greater flexibility to pursue future success in their respective global commerce and payments markets.”

The plan, announced last year, came after months of pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn, who had assailed eBay for poor management and claimed that keeping eBay tied with PayPal depressed the value of both units.

eBay acquired PayPal in 2002 for roughly $1.5 billion in shares, integrating the payment service that had already been widely used for online auctions.

PayPal over the years has expanded beyond a simple payment mechanism for eBay auctions. But Icahn and others have argued that PayPal need to change to compete better in the fast-moving online payments segment.

In 2014, PayPal processed $235 billion in payments and handled one billion mobile transactions. It had revenues last year of $8 billion and worked with 10 million merchants worldwide.

source: technology.inquirer.net

US PR exec accidentally credited $92 quadrillion by PayPal

MANILA, Philippines – A man in the United States was accidentally credited $92 quadrillion in his online PayPal account, a CNN news report said Thursday.

Chris Reynolds, a PR executive who sells auto parts in online marketplace eBay, saw the $92,233,720,368,547,800 credit in his emailed statement of account for the month of June from PayPal.

When he checked his account online, the balance was brought back to $0, the correct amount.

PayPal had already apologized to Reynolds for the error.

The $92 quadrillion would have made Reynolds richer than Forbes number 1 richest man on Earth Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim, whose wealth stands at $73 billion, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is number two on the list with $67 billion. 

source: technology.inquirer.net