Global online payment processing system PayPal recently announced that the company agreed to acquire Swift Financial. The move of the former to buy the online lending company was to expand its market in providing working capital products to merchants, which they have launched in 2013.
Advantages of the acquisition
The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed to the public because it is still subject to approval, but what’s clear right now is that the deal will allow PayPal to offer larger amount to larger businesses, extending mortgage of up to $500,000.
It can be remembered that PayPal has already been offering loans to smaller merchants via their PayPal Working Capital division, but with Swift Financial’s acquisition, this will also enable the San Jose, California-based to deliver better credit or loan capabilities to those who aren’t users of its platform yet.
PayPal’s acquisition of Swift Financial is only one of the many partnerships and business deals the company went through since its breaking off with eBay Inc.
PayPal innovations, other news
In conjunction with the recent acquisition announcement, the popular digital payment firm is preparing to open two new laboratories in India. The two new innovation labs, which will be located in Bangalore and Chennai, will serve as the company’s hive in exploring technological research in VR (Virtual Reality), AI (Artificial Intelligence), IoT (Internet of Things) and Data Science.
PayPal’s Director of Innovation Mike Todasco explained why they choose to build their technology research facility in India. He said that they choose to open the labs in the country because of its vast talent pool in tech expertise, diverse merchant profiles plus they do have an evolving technological start-up ecosystem. With India’s focus on Science and Technology, PayPal will surely gain more economic growth in the future.
Other than successful stories, PayPal has also been allegedly linked to criminal activities. According to The Wall Street Journal, FBI claims that PayPal and eBay were used by an Islamic State official to funnel money to the United States. The money, which was alleged to fund an ISIS operative, was funneled through fake eBay and PayPal transactions.
As a front to these transactions, an American citizen Mohamed Elshinawy sold printers via eBay in order to receive payments via PayPal.
Mohamed Elshinawy, who was arrested in 2016, was said to be part of ISIS. According to The Verge, Elshinawy received payments from an ISIS official named Siful Sujan. The amount he received was then used to purchase VPN (Virtual Private Network), cell phone and a laptop to communicate with the Islamic State. Due to this controversy, eBay and PayPal pledged to help authorities as they do not tolerate criminal activities within their platforms.
