PayPal comes to SA, via FNB

“As an innovative bank, we are excited to make this announcement on the eve of the 2010 World Cup, and clearly we have come at the right time in South Africa, where online international payments was badly needed,” FNB CEO Michael Jordan said in Newtown, Johannesburg.

Jordan said the new service will allow customers to top up and withdraw funds to their FNB accounts from their PayPal accounts. FNB customers can simply open a PayPal account and link it to a ‘qualified' FNB account and receive payment in 21 different currencies, after which FNB will convert the currency into rands as soon as the money is transferred into their accounts.

Not yet integrated

However, the system is still not yet integrated to the cellphone banking.

FNB says it will collect only 1.5% in fee on all transactions, and each transaction will have to be reported to the South African Reserve Bank.

“The new system fully complies with the regulations of Reserve Bank and the exchange control,” he said.

SA is the 190th country to use PayPal, an online global system serving more than 81 million of active accounts worldwide, and used by more than 200 million people.

Secure and safe?

But, as online fraud continues to increase, especially as cyber-criminals flex their muscles with only 78 days left for the 2010 FIFA World Cup kick off, the big question is whether the system is secure and safe.

Oded Zehavi, regional director of PayPal Israel and SA, said: “There is no need to worry about security. I want to assure South Africans that PayPal is secure and safe because it will be under surveillance of all the technology used in other parts of the world.”

Jordan added: “This is a comprehensive agreement that gives us exclusivity and offers us the platform to explore many possibilities of payment provided that we get positive feedback from our customers.”

Asked whether the dawn of PayPal might evoke the coming of eBay in SA, Zehavi replied: “I am not aware of any information about eBay coming to SA.”

“Lagging behind”

Jordan said: “Look, we have a sound banking system but we are just lagging behind in terms of online international payments because of the inability to accept and ease the international payments, which are said to be costly. And I am confident that the arrival of PayPal will firmly boost e-commerce in SA.”

For more:

• Register at: www.paypal.com
  
• Bizcommunity.com: FNB launches PayPal services in SA
  
• The Daily Maverick: PayPal launches in SA with FNB - and there goes the exchange-control neighbourhood