The payments company PayPal is considering expanding its technical capabilities to stock trading for US customers. This, according to CNBC, citing informed sources.
As confirmation of the planned steps, they cited the appointment of veteran broker Rich Hagen to the Invest at PayPal division. Previously, this business unit had not appeared in reports.
The job description for the role indicates the company’s efforts to ‘explore opportunities’ in the consumer-investment business.
Commenting on the appointment, PayPal reminded the publication of CEO Dan Schulman on Investor Day in February. He then noted that the company could include much more financial services, including ‘investment opportunities’.
CNBC attributed the arising interest to a surge in activity by retail investors.
JMP Securities estimates that in the first half of 2021, 10 million new individual investors entered the market, nearly matching the all-time high for 2020.
Analysts attributed this to a combination of the pandemic, government stimulus and events such as шумиха вокруг акций GameStop.
To realise the initiative, PayPal will partner with existing players in the sector, or acquire one of them. Sources described the likelihood of such plans being realised this year as low.
The publication noted intensifying competition in the fintech space. Players such as Square, PayPal, and Robinhood pursue a mission to become a universal platform in finance.
In March, PayPal announced the Checkout with Crypto service, which allows US customers to use cryptocurrency for payments. In April, the company added the ability to buy and sell digital assets in the Venmo mobile service.
In July, Revolut included a housing-booking service in its online banking app.
Earlier, Ukrainian monobank announced the addition of the ability for customers to buy Bitcoin.
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