“New Money” Drives Social Purpose

At PayPal, we’re committed to reimagining financial services through technology to make it more affordable, convenient and secure for consumers to manage and move their money. This vision of ‘New Money’ strives to empower full financial citizenship, and create a world in which everyone—individuals, businesses and nonprofits—has access not only to basic financial services, but also the full range of tools and resources they need to thrive.

Leveling the playing field

A recent PayPal survey of consumers and experts in Brazil, India and the U.S. indicates that the majority of consumers around the world feel worried, frustrated or anxious about their financial situation, and 70 percent of people surveyed believe the financial system benefits certain groups over others, is complicated and not affordable for all. This needs to change; we believe high-quality financial services should be a right for all, not just the privilege of a select few. With two massive changes underway in the world—the digitization of cash and the mass adoption of mobile technology—we’re working to improve the financial health of individuals and businesses around the world by putting the full range of financial services directly into their hands.

Since PayPal’s founding, we’ve set out to build a fair, secure and accessible global payments platform that enables more people to participate fully in the financial system who would otherwise be left behind. Our recent acquisition of Xoom is enabling us to power international remittances to places like Mexico, India, the Philippines and soon to be Cuba, where the process can often be time consuming, expensive and not as secure as it should be. PayPal Working Capital offers the ability for merchants to apply for business loans with flexible payments based on our merchant’s sales with one affordable, fixed fee to help them grow their business more quickly and affordably. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) account for more than half of the world’s GDP and employs two-thirds of the global workforce, yet their number one barrier to growth globally is access to financing. Following the financial crisis in 2008, this challenge was even greater as many local retail banks closed their doors and a willingness to take on high-risk SME loans was minimal. Leveraging new business methods and big data analysis of previous transactions, online business lenders can understand the credit risk of an individual SME and as a result resolve many of the financial barriers faced by SMEs.

PayPal is also driving our vision forward through collaborations with organizations that share similar values and goals for financial citizenship. Through our global expansion of our relationship with Village Capital, we’ll help approximately 40 FinTech social impact start-ups make measurable progress toward increasing financial participation for underserved populations in Latin America, the U.S. and India. And by providing free payment processing to Kiva, a nonprofit organization working with microfinance institutions around the world to provide loans to people without traditional banking systems, we’re helping early-stage entrepreneurs and small businesses get the funding they need to build and grow.

Enabling unprecedented levels of charitable giving

An important part of financial participation is the capacity to give back. For us, it includes inspiring people to support their communities and the causes they care about, as well as empowering charitable organizations with the tools and technologies they need to raise mission-critical funds. PayPal is committed to harnessing the power of technology and scale to build a worldwide network for good that inspires everyone—whether individuals, charities or global brands—to take action. Charitable organizations aren’t just raising funds through galas, auctions, written appeals and paper checks anymore. Digital payment methods have brought a new level of convenience and security to charitable giving, making it as easy as requesting an Uber.

More than 38 million people used PayPal last year to make online charitable contributions, raising $6.6 billion to benefit more than 497,000 charities. Together, with the help of everyone who contributed to charitable organizations through PayPal, we set a Guinness World Record for the most money raised online for charity in 24 hours with donations totaling $45.8 million for more than 250,000 charities on #GivingTuesday. Not only has technology brought a new dimension of convenience to giving, but it also powers the ability to respond in real-time. Less than 24 hours after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal near the capital of Kathmandu, PayPal launched a US campaign in support of more than 20 charities with additional appeals in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, Singapore and Australia to follow. Over the next 30 days, PayPal helped to raise a total of $19 million in relief funds for more than 70 relief organizations through its digital giving platform, $4 million of which was contributed via a mobile device. When disaster strikes, the speed in which funds are mobilized through digital payments is essential.

With the entrance of ‘New Money’ and the rapid proliferation of technology and mobile usage, PayPal is helping to create conditions that make it easier to spend, give and borrow. By making financial services universally affordable and accessible, we have the chance to improve financial health of individuals and businesses worldwide, giving people greater control over their economic destiny with new ways to create opportunities for themselves, their families and their local communities.