Revenues from online payment platform PayPal now account for close to 70 per cent of all Equity Bank Diaspora Banking revenue. This is as a result of an increase in volume of transactions enhanced by the upgrade and enhancement of PayPal system which is now able to process customers’ withdrawal transactions within 3 business days, down from the previous 8 business days.
The latest statistics by the Bank indicate that the number of PayPal users increased by 47 per cent from December 2016 to March 2017. The volume of transactions also increased by 21 per cent in the same period.
Commenting on PayPal’s great performance during the 2016 Full Year Results, Equity Bank Group CEO, Dr. James Mwangi said that the Bank is concentrating on global money transfer as an alternative income stream. He indicated that the success of the Bank’s innovation with the PayPal platform has shown significant growth depicting the power of fintech on fully automated processes.
The service allows Equity Bank customers with a PayPal account to receive payments in 25 currencies from PayPal’s customer base. It also allows the bank to exploit PayPal’s global reach to tap into its existing customer base of more than 188 million active accounts based in over 200 markets around the world.
Another reason why people prefer using PayPal is the fact that it is accepted on multiple platforms and its very secure, in that once you’re registered and verified, you can buy items and make payments locally and internationally without having to enter your credit card details each time or requiring one to share their financial information with the sellers.
The growth of e-commerce has enabled SMEs to be able to take advantage of the digital commerce wave and grow into larger businesses. The partnership between Equity Bank and PayPal is aimed at further giving customers the power to grow and manage their businesses more conveniently and securely.
Equity Bank is committed to offering customer-centric solutions such as mobile money transfer and online payment systems, which continue to bear fruit. The Bank is dedicated to making Kenya a key player in the global digital marketplace. According to the recently released Internet World Stats report, Kenya is a market poised for immense e-commerce growth over the next five years. Recent figures show the country has witnessed positive growth in data Internet subscriptions to reach over 37.7 million subscriptions as of March 2017.
