Big deal? Why Visa is teaming up with PayPal

two hands interlinked by the pinky finger in front of a brick wall

In another big deal for the global payments industry this week, credit card firm Visa has inked a partnership with digital payments processor PayPal.

The deal will see the firms working “more collaboratively” (to use the official phrasing) when it comes to how consumers use PayPal and Venmo mobile wallets to actually pay for goods. It will also see PayPal wallets accepted in shops that have Visa contactless check-outs, helping boost the footprint of PayPal’s mobile point of sale reach.

Previously, PayPal would encourage Visa cardholders signing up to its wallets to link to a bank account instead of entering their credit card details. Given the booming popularity of Venmo in particular, this unsurprisingly annoyed Visa as it was being sliced out of the opportunity.

The deal was announced as part of both firm’s Q2 earnings announcements, where PayPal reported revenues up 15% to $2.65bn for the quarter coming in ahead of expectations.

In the past quarter PayPal processed $86 billion in total transactions, with $24 billion of that happening on mobile. That’s up 56% and represented 28% of PayPal’s turnover during the three months to June 30. Venmo processed $3.9bn of that mobile turnover, up 141% year on year.

In other mobile payments news, Reuters reported this week that Square has incorporated a business dubbed Squareup Europe in the UK, suggesting the San Francisco-based firm co-founded by Jack Dorsey is laying the foundations for its first move into the European market.

The move would pitch it into competition with local players iZettle from Sweden and SumUp in Germany (which recently merged with Rocket Internet rival Payleven), as well as PayPal Here.

 

Venmo transactions boom 141%             

> Active customer accounts climbed 11% to 188m
> PayPal processed 1.4bn transactions in Q2, up 25%
> Per account, users made 29 payments over last 12 months
> Total payment volume hit $86bn, up 28% year on year
> Revenues up 15% year on year to $2.65bn
> GAAP net income up 6% to $323m
> Venmo transactions increased 141% year on year

Meanwhile Visa reported a 3% rise in revenues to $3.6bn in its fiscal third quarter. GAAP net income was $412m, down 76% year on year primarily due to the acquisition of Visa Europe.

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