PayPal powers BofA Merrill digital payments
Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s (BofA Merrill) US-based commercial clients can now make payments in local currencies to payees who hold PayPal accounts.
The payments, which are initiated through BofA Merrill’s global digital disbursements product, can be made from the US to PayPal account holders in Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the Philippines.
While this is good news, also today (1 February), eBay gave PayPal the boot and turned to Dutch firm Adyen as its primary processing partner.
Back to a happy place. In 2014, BofA Merrill launched digital disbursements for interbank business-to-consumer (B2C) payments that use an email address or mobile phone number as an identifier. It now says it is the “first financial institution in the US” to offer B2C payments through PayPal, using an email address as an identifier.
Hubert J.P. Jolly, global head of financing and channels for Global Transaction Services (GTS) at BofA Merrill, says the deal will help its clients “access the growth in the use of digital wallets, which in many parts of the world are the preferred method of payment”.
The bank sees its global digital disbursements as an alternative to traditional wire, ACH, or cheque payments.
It reckons such benefits include paying people who rent their homes; people who perform contract work; and insurance claim payments.
Back in August 2017, the bank announced an agreement for Bank of America retail customers to transact with PayPal in stores and link their Bank of America credit and debit cards to their PayPal accounts.
