Saturday 20 March 2010

DBS ties up with PayPal to spur online payments

Online payments facilitator, PayPal yesterday announced plans to ramp up Singapore operations with more hires and a tie-up with DBS Bank which would make it easier and more secure for the latter’s customers to shop online.

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DBS ties up with PayPal to spur online payments

Linkup will enable customers to pay for purchases through their bank accounts

By AMIT ROY CHOUDHURY
18 March 2010

Online payments facilitator, PayPal yesterday announced plans to ramp up Singapore operations with more hires and a tie-up with DBS Bank which would make it easier and more secure for the latter’s customers to shop online.

Under the agreement signed between DBS and PayPal, four million of the bank’s customers would be able to debit their bank accounts to fund online purchases done through a PayPal account.

DBS and POSB bank account holders will be able to start using the new system by the middle of this year.

The bank’s partnership with PayPal would enable it to enhance its online offering, said Rajan Raju, DBS’s group executive, consumer banking group.

‘It gives our customers greater choices to shop and pay online in a more convenient manner. Our two-year exclusive deal with PayPal is certainly a Singapore first. We are also exploring how we could widen our partnership to benefit our customers in Asia,’ said Mr. Raju of the tie-up which ensures that PayPal works only with DBS locally for the interim.

PayPal will be particularly useful for customers who don’t want to disclose their credit card details while shopping online and also for customers looking to buy from overseas merchants or eBay auction site sellers who don’t accept local credit cards.

With the largest consumer Internet banking customer base of more than 1.35 million customers and a 35 per cent market share, DBS has seen a steady increase in iBanking users over the past year, Mr. Raju said. ‘The bank has also seen an average of about three million logins a month on its iBanking service, with transaction values increasing over the past two years.’

Scott Thompson, Pay- Pal’s president, noted that cross border trade accounted for approximately 25 per cent of PayPal’s total payment volume of US$71 billion in 2009. PayPal processed more than US$6 billion of total payments volume in Asia-Pacific in 2009, an increase of 38 per cent from 2008.

‘We are very excited to partner with Singapore’s leading bank to make online payments even faster and easier for DBS customers,’ Mr. Thompson said.

The PayPal boss also announced that the company plans to recruit more than 100 new employees in Singapore by the end of this year. This would be part of a plan to double the number of employees in Asia-Pacific from 1,000 currently to over 2,000 also by the end of the year.

New jobs will be located at all seven offices in the region including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. The company is hiring local professionals in technology, customer support, marketing and product management, Mr. Thompson noted.

The announcements were made at the company’s new international headquarters at Suntec City. The Singapore office represents all of PayPal’s business outside of the US.

‘Singapore serves as an excellent operational hub for PayPal’s international operations due to its economically strategic location, its friendly business environment, political stability and world-class infrastructure,’ Mr. Thompson said.

PayPal’s Asia-Pacific VP, Farhad Irani, noted that the company growth in Asia-Pacific to date has largely been driven by its cross border business.

‘However, we fully expect the domestic business in many of our Asian markets to explode in the coming years. Our success in the region will continue to rely on partnering with merchants, financial services companies and local governments to deliver the right services for consumers.’