Item 1. Business
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
OVERVIEW
PayPal Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in January 2015 and is a leading technology platform that enables digital payments and simplifies commerce experiences on behalf of merchants and consumers worldwide. PayPal is committed to democratizing financial services to help improve the financial health of individuals and to increase economic opportunity for entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes around the world. Our goal is to enable our merchants and consumers to manage and move their money anywhere in the world in the markets we serve, anytime, on any platform, and using any device when sending payments or getting paid, including person-to-person (“P2P”) payments. Our core values of Inclusion, Innovation, Collaboration, and Wellness, reflected in our leadership principles, are the driving forces behind our mission and form the foundation of our operating philosophy. We believe that our core values help stimulate the creativity and engagement of our global workforce to deliver products and services designed to meet the diverse needs of our customers. We also believe that effective management of environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) risks and opportunities is essential to deliver on our mission and strategy. Unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires, references to “we,” “our,” “us,” “the Company,” or “PayPal” refer to PayPal Holdings, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.
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PayPal’s payment solutions enable our customers to connect, transact, and send and receive payments, whether they are online or in person. We provide proprietary payment solutions accepted by merchants that enable the completion of payments on our platform on behalf of our customers. We operate a global, two-sided network at scale that connects merchants and consumers with 435 million active accounts (consisting of 400 million consumer active accounts and 35 million merchant active accounts) across more than 200 markets as of December 31, 2022.
We offer our customers the flexibility to use their PayPal or Venmo accounts to purchase and receive payments for goods and services, as well as the ability to transfer and withdraw funds. We enable consumers to exchange funds more safely with merchants using a variety of funding sources, which may include a bank account, a PayPal or Venmo account balance, PayPal and Venmo branded credit products including our installment products, a credit card, a debit card, certain cryptocurrencies, or other stored value products such as gift cards, and eligible rewards. Our PayPal, Venmo, and Xoom products also make it safer and simpler for friends and family to transfer funds to each other. We offer merchants an end-to-end payments solution that provides authorization and settlement capabilities, as well as instant access to funds and payouts. We also help merchants connect with their customers, process exchanges and returns, and manage risk. We help reduce the friction typically involved in cross-border commerce by offering consumers a simple payment experience and by enabling merchants to extend their reach to consumers in the global markets in which our services are available.
We earn revenues primarily by charging fees for completing payment transactions for our customers and other payment-related services, which are typically based on the volume of activity processed on our payments platform. We also generate revenue from customers on fees charged for foreign currency conversion, for instant transfers from their PayPal or Venmo account to their bank account or debit card, and to facilitate the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies; however, we generally do not charge customers to fund or draw from their accounts. We also earn revenue by providing other value added services, which are comprised primarily of revenue earned through partnerships, interest and fees from our merchant and consumer credit products, interest earned on certain assets underlying customer balances, referral fees, subscription fees, and gateway services.
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KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS
We measure the scale of our platform and the relevance of our products and services to our customers through certain metrics, including total payment volume, payment transactions, and active accounts:
Total payment volume (“TPV”) is the value of payments, net of payment reversals, successfully completed on our payments platform or enabled by PayPal via a partner payment solution, not including gateway-exclusive transactions.
Number of payment transactions are the total number of payments, net of payment reversals, successfully completed on our payments platform or enabled by PayPal via a partner payment solution, not including gateway-exclusive transactions.
An active account is an account registered directly with PayPal or a platform access partner that has completed a transaction on our platform, not including gateway-exclusive transactions, within the past 12 months. A platform access partner is a third party whose customers are provided access to PayPal’s platform or services through such third-party’s login credentials, including individuals and entities that utilize Hyperwallet’s payout capabilities. A user may register on our platform to access different products and may register more than one account to access a product. Accordingly, a user may have more than one active account. The number of active accounts provides management with additional perspective on the overall scale of our platform, but may not have a direct relationship to our operating results.
OUR STRENGTHS
Our business is built on a strong foundation designed to drive growth and differentiate us from our competitors. A critical element of our overall growth strategy involves increasing the engagement of our active accounts, which we expect will contribute to growth in payment transactions, total payment volume, and net revenues. We believe that our competitive strengths include the following:
• Two-sided network — our payments platform connecting merchants and consumers enables PayPal to offer unique end-to-end product experiences while gaining valuable insights into how our customers use our platform. Our payments platform provides for digital and in-store (at the point of sale) transactions while being both technology and platform agnostic.
• Merchant and consumer choice — our branded and unbranded card processing payment solutions support an open ecosystem that provides choice to both merchants and consumers, enabling flexibility to make and receive payments using a wide variety of different funding options and digital wallet solutions.
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• Scale — our global scale helps us to drive organic growth. As of December 31, 2022, we had 435 million active accounts, consisting of 400 million consumer active accounts and 35 million merchant active accounts in more than 200 markets around the world. A market is a geographic area or political jurisdiction, such as a country, territory, or protectorate, in which we offer some or all of our products and services. A country, territory, or protectorate is identified by a distinct set of laws and regulations. In 2022, we processed $1.36 trillion of TPV.
• Trusted brands — we have built and strengthened well-recognized and trusted brands, including PayPal, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom, Hyperwallet, PayPal Zettle, PayPal Honey, and Paidy. Our communications and marketing efforts across multiple geographies and demographic groups play an important role in building brand visibility, usage, and overall preference among customers.
• Risk and compliance management — our enterprise risk and compliance management program is designed to help secure customer information and to help ensure we process legitimate transactions around the world, while identifying and minimizing illegal, high-risk, or fraudulent transactions.
• Regulatory licenses — we believe that our regulatory licenses, which enable us to operate in markets around the world, are a distinct advantage and help support business growth.
MERCHANT AND CONSUMER PAYMENT SOLUTIONS
During 2022, we reorganized our product organization to better align with merchants and consumers to help simplify decision making and enable our teams to innovate and launch new products and features more quickly and efficiently.
Merchant value proposition
We partner with our merchants to help grow and expand their businesses by providing global reach and powering all aspects of digital checkout. We offer alternative payment methods (including access to credit solutions), provide fraud prevention and risk management solutions, reduce merchant losses through proprietary protection programs, and offer tools and insights for utilizing data analytics to attract and engage customers and improve sales conversion. We employ a technology and platform agnostic approach intended to enable merchants of all sizes to quickly and easily provide digital checkout online, including through PayPal-branded checkout and unbranded card processing (primarily consisting of Braintree), as well as in-store at the point of sale, across all platforms and devices, and to securely and simply receive payments from their customers.
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PayPal’s payments platform enables merchants to accept all types of online and offline payments, including those made with the PayPal and Venmo digital wallets, our consumer credit products, credit cards and debit cards, and competing digital wallets, as well as other popular local payment methods. Our diversified suite of products and services is tailored to meet the needs of merchants regardless of their size or business complexity. We have expanded our merchant value proposition to enable payment acceptance at the point of sale through our PayPal and Venmo digital wallets and our PayPal Zettle point of sale solutions. We aim to offer a seamless, omni-channel solution that helps merchants manage and grow their business. Through our consumer-focused offerings, we provide simplified and personalized shopping experiences for consumers, including easier exchanges and returns, to help merchants drive increased conversion through higher consumer engagement.
We offer access to merchant finance products for certain small and medium-sized businesses through the PayPal Working Capital and PayPal Business Loan products, which we collectively refer to as our merchant finance offerings. The PayPal Working Capital product allows businesses to access a loan or cash advance for a fixed fee and based on their annual payment volume processed by PayPal. The PayPal Business Loan product provides businesses with short-term financing for a fixed fee based on an evaluation of both the applying business as well as the business owner. In the United States (“U.S.”), these products are provided under a program agreement with an independent chartered financial institution. We believe that our merchant finance offerings enable us to deepen our engagement with our existing small and medium-sized merchants and expand services to new merchants by providing access to capital that may not be available from traditional banks or other lending providers.
We generate revenues from merchants primarily by charging fees for completing their payment transactions and other payment-related services. We also earn revenues from interest and fees earned on our merchant loans receivables.
Consumer value proposition
We focus on providing affordable, convenient, and secure consumer financial products and services intended to democratize the management and movement of money. We provide consumers with a digital wallet that enables them to send payments to merchants more safely using a variety of funding sources, which may include a bank account, a PayPal or Venmo account balance, our consumer credit products, a credit card, a debit card, certain cryptocurrencies, or other stored value products such as gift cards, and eligible rewards. Our goal is to create the simplest checkout experience possible for consumers both online and on mobile devices.
We also offer consumers P2P payment solutions through our PayPal, Venmo, and Xoom products and services. We enable both domestic and international P2P transfers across our payments platform. Our Venmo digital wallet in the U.S. is a leading mobile application used to move money between our customers and to make purchases at select merchants. Our Xoom international money transfer service enables our customers to send money to people around the world in a secure, fast, and cost-effective way. P2P is an important source of customer engagement and also serves as a customer acquisition channel that facilitates organic growth by enabling potential users to establish active accounts with PayPal or Venmo at the time they make or receive a P2P payment. We also focus on simplifying and personalizing shopping experiences for our consumers by offering tools for product discovery, price tracking, offers, convenient tracking and redemption options for their shopping rewards, and easier exchanges and returns, which help our merchants to increase consumer engagement and sales conversion.
We offer credit products to consumers in certain markets as a funding source at checkout, subject to approval of credit for the account holder. Our consumer credit offerings include our buy now, pay later products in the U.S., United Kingdom (“U.K.”), France, and Germany, among others, and in Japan through Paidy. A key attribute of our buy now, pay later products is the absence of interest or consumer late fees for missed payments in most of the geographies where we offer them. Further, we offer consumer interest-bearing installment products for consumers in the U.S., issued by an independent chartered financial institution, and in Germany. In the U.S., consumers may apply for our PayPal- and Venmo-branded consumer credit cards and our PayPal Credit revolving consumer credit product, which are offered through a partnership with an independent chartered financial institution. We offer a PayPal-issued PayPal Credit product in the U.K. We believe that our consumer credit products help enable us to increase engagement with consumers and merchants on our two-sided network.
We have expanded our consumer value proposition through enhancements to the PayPal and Venmo digital wallets, which provide functionality to enable consumers to more easily checkout, explore deals and offers, track and redeem rewards, and to transact with cryptocurrencies, including buying, holding, selling, sending, and receiving them in certain markets. Our goal is to drive increased consumer engagement by providing consumers with a comprehensive set of services to manage their finances and enhance their ability to shop online and in person.
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We generate revenue from consumers on: fees charged for foreign currency conversion, instant transfers from their PayPal or Venmo account to their bank account or debit card, and to facilitate the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies; interest, fees, or other revenue from our credit products; and other miscellaneous fees.
PROTECTING MERCHANTS AND CONSUMERS
Protecting merchants and consumers on our payments platform from financial and fraud loss is important to successfully competing and sustainably growing our business. Fraudulent activities, such as account takeover, identity theft (including stolen financial information), and malicious activities by counterparties, represent a significant risk to merchants and consumers, as well as their payment partners. We provide merchants and consumers with protection programs for certain purchase transactions completed on our payments platform. We believe that these programs, which help protect both merchants and consumers from financial loss resulting from fraud and counterparty non-performance, are generally consistent with or broader than protections provided by other participants in the payments industry. Our protection programs are designed to promote confidence on both the part of consumers, who will only be required to pay in certain circumstances, such as receiving their purchased item in the condition significantly as described, and merchants, who will receive payment for delivering an item to the customer.
Our ability to help protect both merchants and consumers is based largely on our proprietary, end-to-end payments platform and our ability to utilize the data from both sides of transactions on our two-sided network, specifically from buyers and sellers and from senders and receivers of payments. Our ongoing investment in systems and processes is designed to enhance the safety and security of our products and reflects our goal of having PayPal recognized as one of the world’s most trusted payments brands.
COMPETITION
The global payments industry is highly competitive, dynamic, highly innovative, and increasingly subject to regulatory scrutiny and oversight. Many of the areas in which we compete evolve rapidly with innovative and disruptive technologies, shifting user preferences and needs, price sensitivity of merchants and consumers, and frequent introductions of new products and services. Competition also may intensify as new competitors emerge, businesses enter into business combinations and partnerships, and established companies in other segments expand to become competitive with various aspects of our business.
We compete with a wide range of businesses. Some of our current and potential competitors are or may be larger than we are, have larger customer bases, greater brand recognition, longer operating histories, a dominant or more secure position, broader geographic scope, volume, scale, resources, and market share than we do, or offer products and services that we do not offer. Other competitors are or may be smaller or younger companies that may be more agile in responding to regulatory and technological changes and customer preferences.
We differentiate ourselves to merchants through our ability to innovate and develop products and services that offer new payment experiences for our merchants, demonstrate that they may achieve incremental sales by using and offering our services to consumers, support transactions on our payments platform across varied technologies and payment methods, through the simplicity and transparency of our fee structure, our seller protection programs, analytics, and risk management, as well as other merchant services. In addition, we differentiate ourselves to consumers through the ability to use our products and services across multiple commerce channels, including e-commerce, mobile, and payments at the point of sale, and without sharing their financial information with the merchant or any other party they are paying; our customer service, dispute resolution, and purchase protection programs; and our ability to simplify and personalize shopping experiences. We invest resources towards improving our products and services, offering choice in payment options, providing excellent customer service, and building brands that merchants and consumers trust.
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Our business faces competition from a wide range of businesses and from all forms of physical and electronic payments. We face competition from banks and financial institutions, which provide traditional payment methods (particularly credit cards and debit cards (collectively, “payment cards”), electronic bank transfers, and credit), payment networks that facilitate payments for payment cards or proprietary retail networks, payment card processors, and “card on file” services. We also face competition from providers offering a variety of payment products and services, including tokenized and contactless payment cards, digital wallets and mobile payments solutions, credit, installment or other buy now pay later methods, real-time payment systems, P2P payments and money remittance services, card readers and other devices or technologies for payment at point of sale, virtual currencies and distributed ledger technologies, and tools that simplify and personalize shopping experiences for consumers and merchants. Our products and services face competition from all forms of payments, which include paper-based payments (primarily cash and checks), credit cards, debit cards, electronic bank transfers, account-to-account payments, credit, installment methods, digital wallets and mobile payment solutions, contactless payments (including contactless cards, tokenized cards, Near Field Communication (NFC) based solutions, and Quick Response (QR) code-based solutions), and virtual currencies, such as cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.
In addition to the discussion in this section, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the caption “ We face substantial and increasingly intense competition worldwide in the global payments industry” for further discussion of the potential impact of competition on our business.
STRATEGY
Our ability to grow revenue is affected by, among other things, the macroeconomic environment and its impact on consumer spending patterns, merchant and consumer adoption of digital payment methods, the expansion of multiple commerce channels, the growth of mobile devices and merchant and consumer applications on those devices, the growth of consumers globally with internet and mobile access, the pace of transition from cash and checks to digital forms of payment, our share of the digital payments market, and our ability to innovate and introduce new products, services, and features that merchants and consumers value. Our strategy to drive growth in our business includes the following:
• Growing our core business : through expanding our global capabilities, customer base and scale, increasing our customers’ engagement and use of our products and services by better addressing their everyday needs to access, manage, and move money, creating seamless checkout experiences, and expanding the adoption of our solutions by merchants and consumers;
• Expanding our value proposition for merchants and consumers : by being technology and platform agnostic, partnering with our merchants to grow and expand their business online and in-store, and providing consumers with simple, secure, and flexible ways to manage and move money across different markets, merchants, and platforms, and simplifying their shopping experiences;
• Forming and expanding strategic partnerships : by building new strategic partnerships and deepening existing ones to provide better experiences for our customers, offer greater choice and flexibility, acquire new customers, and reinforce our role in the payments ecosystem; and
• Seeking new areas of growth : organically and through acquisitions and strategic investments in our existing and new international markets and focusing on innovation in both the digital and physical world.
ESG MANAGEMENT
PayPal is committed to creating a more inclusive global economy and advancing our core values of Inclusion, Innovation, Collaboration, and Wellness across our communities, workforce, and strategies. We manage priority ESG risks and opportunities organized across four key pillars: (1) employees and culture, (2) social innovation, (3) environmental sustainability, and (4) responsible business practices. We believe this integrated, enterprise-wide approach to managing our global business responsibly helps to enable us to create value for all our stakeholders, including our stockholders, employees, partners, and communities. We continue to advance and prioritize efforts to manage key non-financial factors critical to our long-term business, including progress on our science-based approach to reducing our climate change impacts, targeted investments and partnerships to address the racial wealth gap and empower underserved communities and businesses, ongoing programmatic development intended to foster an inclusive culture across the employee experience, and further enhancements to support the safety and security of our products and platform. We take this commitment seriously and endeavor to provide transparent disclosures on our progress through our annual Global Impact Report and other communications.
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TECHNOLOGY
Our payments platform utilizes a combination of proprietary and third-party technologies and services intended to facilitate transactions efficiently and securely between millions of merchants and consumers worldwide across different channels, markets, and networks. Our payments platform connects with financial service providers around the world and allows consumers to make purchases using a wide range of payment methods, regardless of where a merchant is located. Consumers who use our payments platform can send payments in more than 200 markets around the world and in nearly 150 currencies, withdraw funds to their bank accounts in 56 currencies, and hold balances in their PayPal accounts in 25 currencies.
We have developed intuitive user interfaces, customer tools, transaction management databases, and payment network integrations on our platform designed to enable our customers to utilize our suite of products and services. Our payments platform, open application programming interfaces, and developer tools are designed to enable developers to innovate with ease and offer robust solutions to our global ecosystem of merchants and consumers, while at the same time helping to maintain the security of our customers’ information.
The technology infrastructure supporting our payments platform is designed to simplify the storage and processing of large amounts of data and facilitate the deployment and operation of large-scale global products and services in both our own data centers and when hosted by third-party cloud service providers. Our technology infrastructure is designed around industry best practices intended to reduce downtime and help ensure the resiliency of our payments platform in the event of outages or catastrophic occurrences. Our payments platform incorporates multiple layers of protection for business continuity and system redundancy purposes and to help mitigate cybersecurity risks. We have a comprehensive cybersecurity program designed to protect our technology infrastructure and payments platform against cybersecurity threats, which includes regularly testing our systems to identify and address potential vulnerabilities. We strive to continually improve our technology infrastructure and payments platform to enhance the customer experience and to increase efficiency, scalability, and security.
For additional information regarding risks relating to our technology infrastructure and cybersecurity, see the information in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the captions “ Cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities could result in serious harm to our reputation, business, and financial condition ” and “ Business interruptions or systems failures may impair the availability of our websites, applications, products or services, or otherwise harm our business .”
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Our total research and development expense was $1.7 billion, $1.6 billion, and $1.4 billion in 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
The protection of our intellectual property, including our trademarks, copyrights, domain names, trade dress, patents, and trade secrets, is important to the success of our business. We seek to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on applicable laws, regulations, and administrative procedures in the U.S. and internationally. We have registered our core brands as domain names and as trademarks in the U.S. and many international jurisdictions. We also have an active program to secure and enforce trademarks and domain names that correspond to our brands in markets of interest. We have filed and continue to file patent applications in the U.S. and in international jurisdictions covering certain aspects of our proprietary technology and new innovations. We also rely on contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary rights when offering or procuring products and services. We routinely enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and non-disclosure agreements with parties with whom we conduct business to control access to, and use and disclosure of, our proprietary information.
For additional information regarding risks relating to our intellectual property, see the information in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the captions “ Third parties may allege that we are infringing their patents and other intellectual property rights ” and “ We may be unable to protect or enforce our intellectual property .”
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GOVERNMENT REGULATION
We operate globally and in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment characterized by a heightened focus by regulators globally on all aspects of the payments industry, including countering terrorist financing, anti-money laundering, privacy, cybersecurity, and consumer protection. The laws and regulations applicable to us, including those enacted prior to the advent of digital payments, continue to evolve through legislative and regulatory action and judicial interpretation. New or changing laws and regulations, including changes to their interpretation and implementation, as well as increased penalties and enforcement actions related to non-compliance, could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. We monitor these areas closely and are focused on designing compliant solutions for our customers.
Government regulation impacts key aspects of our business. We are subject to the laws and regulations applicable to the payments industry in the markets we operate, which are subject to interpretation and change.
Payments regulation. Various laws and regulations govern the payments industry in the U.S. and internationally. In the U.S., PayPal, Inc. (a wholly-owned subsidiary) holds licenses to operate as a money transmitter (or its equivalent) in the states where such licenses are required, as well as in the District of Columbia and certain territories. These licenses include not only the PayPal-branded products and services offered in these locations, but also our Venmo, Hyperwallet, and Xoom products and services to the extent offered in these locations. As a licensed money transmitter, PayPal is subject to, among other requirements, restrictions with respect to the investment of customer funds, reporting requirements, bonding requirements, and inspection by state regulatory agencies. In certain cases, these licenses also generally cover PayPal’s service enabling customers to buy, hold, transfer, and sell cryptocurrency directly from their PayPal or Venmo account. In the State of New York, PayPal holds a full Bitlicense issued by the New York Department of Financial Services to offer cryptocurrency services in the state.
Outside the U.S., we provide similar services customized for various countries and foreign jurisdictions through our foreign subsidiaries. The activities of those non-U.S. entities are, or may be, supervised by a financial regulatory authority in the jurisdictions in which they operate. Among other regulatory authorities, the Luxembourg Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (the “CSSF”), the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the People’s Bank of China, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Reserve Bank of India, the Central Bank of Russia, and the Central Bank of Brazil have asserted jurisdiction over some or all of our activities in their respective jurisdictions. This list is not exhaustive, and there are numerous other regulatory agencies which have asserted or may assert jurisdiction over our activities.
In addition, financial services regulators in various jurisdictions, including the U.S. and the European Union (“EU”), have implemented authentication requirements for banks and payment processors intended to reduce online fraud, which could impose significant costs, make it more difficult for new customers to open PayPal accounts, and reduce the ease of use of our products.
Banking agency supervision . We serve our customers in the EU and U.K. through PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. et Cie, S.C.A. (“PayPal (Europe)”), a wholly-owned subsidiary that is licensed and subject to regulation as a credit institution in Luxembourg by the CSSF. Under the U.K.’s Temporary Permissions Regime, PayPal is deemed to be authorized and regulated by the U.K. FCA as a result of Brexit. Consequently, we must comply with rules and regulations of the European banking industry, including those related to capitalization, funds management, corporate governance, anti-money laundering, disclosure, reporting, and inspection. We are, or may be, subject to banking-related regulations in other countries now or in the future related to our role in the financial industry. In addition, based on our relationships with our partner financial institutions, we are, or may be, subject to indirect regulation and examination by the regulators of these partner financial institutions.
Lending regulation . Our U.S. consumer short-term, interest-free, installment product is subject to federal and state laws governing consumer credit and debt collection. PayPal holds multiple state licenses as the lender of this product. Paidy, Inc. holds multiple licenses for the issuance of its consumer installment products in Japan and is registered with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as a Comprehensive Credit Purchase Intermediary. In Australia, PayPal Credit Pty Limited offers a consumer short-term, interest-free, installment product that is exempt from regulation by the primary consumer credit legislation, but is subject to other laws which cover the provision of financial services, credit reporting, debt collection, and privacy. PayPal’s consumer short-term, interest-free, installment products in the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, and Italy are generally exempt from primary consumer credit legislation; however, certain consumer lending laws, consumer protection, and banking transparency regulations apply to this activity.
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Our U.S. consumer interest-bearing installment product is subject to federal and state laws and is offered by an independent chartered financial institution. PayPal’s interest-bearing installment product for consumers in Germany is subject to applicable local laws such as consumer (lending) laws, consumer protection, or banking transparency regulations. These loans are originated by PayPal (Europe).
PayPal and Venmo co-branded consumer credit cards and the PayPal Credit revolving consumer credit product are issued by an independent chartered financial institution in the U.S., and are subject to laws and regulations governing these programs. PayPal Credit in the U.K. is a regulated, revolving consumer credit product subject to applicable local laws and regulations.
Our U.S. merchant lending products are subject to federal and state regulations and are offered by an independent chartered financial institution. Our merchant lending products offered in Germany, France and the Netherlands are subject to the laws of Luxembourg and certain local laws, and our merchant lending product offered in the U.K. is subject to U.K. regulation. The loans offered to European and U.K. merchants are originated by PayPal (Europe). Our merchant lending product in Australia is subject to the laws of Australia and originated by PayPal Credit Pty Limited.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”). The CFPB has significant authority to regulate consumer financial products in the U.S., including consumer credit, deposits, payments, and similar products. As a large market participant of remittance transfers, the CFPB has direct supervisory authority over our business. The CFPB and similar regulatory agencies in other jurisdictions may have broad consumer protection mandates that could result in the promulgation and interpretation of rules and regulations that may affect our business.
Anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and sanctions. PayPal is subject to anti-money laundering (“AML”) laws and regulations in the U.S. and other jurisdictions, as well as laws designed to prevent the use of the financial systems to facilitate terrorist activities. Our AML program is designed to prevent our payments platform from being used to facilitate money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit activities, or to do business in countries or with persons and entities included on designated country or person lists promulgated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls and equivalent authorities in other countries. Our AML and sanctions compliance programs, overseen by our AML/Bank Secrecy Act Officer, are composed of policies, procedures, and internal controls, and are designed to address these legal and regulatory requirements and assist in managing money laundering and terrorist financing risks.
Interchange fees. Interchange fees associated with four-party payments systems are being reviewed or challenged in various jurisdictions. For example, in the EU, the Multilateral Interchange Fee Regulation caps interchange fees for credit and debit card payments and provides for business rules to be complied with by any company dealing with payment card transactions, including PayPal. As a result, the fees that we collect in certain jurisdictions may become the subject of regulatory challenge.
Data protection and privacy. We are subject to a number of laws, rules, directives, and regulations (“privacy and data protection laws”) relating to the collection, use, retention, security, processing, and transfer (collectively, “processing”) of personally identifiable information about our customers, our merchants’ customers, and employees (“personal data”) in the countries where we operate. Our business relies on the processing of personal data in many jurisdictions and the movement of data across national borders. As a result, much of the personal data that we process, which may include certain financial information associated with individuals, is subject to one or more privacy and data protection laws in one or more jurisdictions. In many cases, these laws apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between or among us, our subsidiaries, and other parties with which we have commercial relationships.
Regulatory scrutiny of privacy, data protection, cybersecurity practices, and the processing of personal data is increasing around the world. Regulatory authorities are continuously considering numerous legislative and regulatory proposals and interpretive guidelines that may contain additional privacy and data protection obligations. Many jurisdictions in which we operate have adopted, or are in the process of adopting, or amending data privacy legislation or regulation aimed at creating and enhancing individual privacy rights. In addition, the interpretation and application of these privacy and data protection laws in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere are subject to change and may subject us to increased regulatory scrutiny and business costs.
Anti-corruption. PayPal is subject to applicable anti-corruption laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act, and similar laws in the jurisdictions in which we operate. Anti-corruption laws generally prohibit offering, promising, giving, accepting, or authorizing others to provide anything of value, either directly or indirectly, to or from a government official or private party in order to influence official action or otherwise gain an unfair business advantage, such as to obtain or retain business. We have implemented policies, procedures, and internal controls that are designed to comply with these laws and regulations.
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Additional regulatory developments. Various regulatory agencies continue to examine and implement laws governing a wide variety of issues, including virtual currencies, identity theft, account management guidelines, disclosure rules, cybersecurity, competition, and marketing, which may impact PayPal’s business. Certain governments around the world are adopting laws and regulations pertaining to ESG performance, transparency, and reporting, including those related to general corporate ESG disclosures (e.g., the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) as well as topical reporting and risk management requirements, such as obligations related to the management of climate-related risks.
For an additional discussion on governmental regulation affecting our business, please see “Item 1A. Risk Factors ” and “Item 3. Legal Proceedings” included in this Form 10-K.
HUMAN CAPITAL
At PayPal, we consider the management of our global talent (human capital) to be essential to the ongoing success of our business. As of December 31, 2022, we employed approximately 29,900 people globally, with 44% in the Americas, 43% in Asia-Pacific, and 13% in Europe and the Middle East. Our global employees work predominantly full-time and represent nearly 150 nationalities, across 27 countries, including approximately 11,800 located in the U.S.
Attracting, recruiting, developing, and retaining diverse talent enables us to provide our customers with products and services that help them to thrive in the global economy, and serve our other stakeholders. In 2022, we developed 12 leadership principles based on our four core values that establish a common set of expectations for all employees. We began integrating these principles across our global talent strategy to help shape our programs throughout the employee lifecycle and achieve key business priorities. We also remain focused on promoting the physical, mental, and financial wellness of our employees, particularly as our workforce continues to navigate changes in where and how we work.
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Employee engagement
We use employee feedback to directly inform the ongoing development of our employee programs. In addition to administering an annual survey to gather input from our global workforce, we also conducted specific surveys to gather direct employee feedback on our internal communications approach and evolving workplace preferences. For our 2022 annual employee survey, we heard from 83% of our global employees. Our engagement score, which reflects employees that would recommend PayPal to their peers and/or are happy at PayPal was 79%. Our score measuring intent to stay was 78%, which reflects an employee’s expectation to remain employed with the company in two years. Additionally, we observed improvements in employee scores regarding collaboration and manager support. In 2022, we enhanced our survey to incorporate viewpoints on the employee experience, diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging (“DIE&B”) efforts, and our leadership principles, including specific questions on working style and strategic direction. The detailed scores are shared across the organization and analyzed to understand differences by geography, demographics, business function, and job level, and to help identify opportunities for further improvement.
Talent acquisition, development, and retention
As a leading technology platform that enables digital payments and simplifies commerce experiences, we compete for top global talent around the world. We believe that a strong culture focused on employee experiences that enables advancement, learning, and individual career insights is essential to the successful acquisition, development, and retention of diverse talent. Accordingly, we have implemented programs focused on inclusive hiring practices and extending our talent pipeline through targeted partnerships, reimagined our career development program for individuals and managers, extended individual coaching and mentorship programs (particularly for underrepresented and technical talent), and advanced efforts for employees to grow through self-paced and community learning experiences.
Employee wellness
We remain focused on promoting the holistic well-being of our employees, including resources, programs, and services to support our employees’ physical, mental, and financial wellness. In 2022, our initiatives included extending our Global Wellness Days for all employees to take time to rest and recharge, providing resources, trainings, and workshops to foster emotional well-being, preserving workplace flexibility through Crisis Leave and other programs, and strategically extending employee benefits to additional global markets. We also continued our efforts to strengthen employee financial wellness, including offering individual employee financial coaching, promoting the prioritization of employee financial health across the private sector through the Worker Financial Wellness Initiative, and improving our internal measurement and evaluation approaches to identify targeted opportunities for further enhancements. Through our global community impact program, we support our employees’ individual passions and communities by matching eligible employee donations and volunteer time with non-profit organizations up to $2,500 annually per employee.
Diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging
We believe that fostering DIE&B is critical to our global talent strategy and pivotal to building a culture that embraces individual characteristics, values diversity, minimizes barriers, and enhances feelings of security and support across the workplace. We are committed to equal pay for equal work, promoting enterprise-wide inclusive learning opportunities, and partnering with leading organizations to embed DIE&B considerations into our talent strategy. We believe that our strong commitment to DIE&B is evident at all levels of the organization from our Board of Directors to our executive leadership team to our global workforce. As of December 31, 2022, 50% of our Board and 64% of our senior leadership team identified as women and/or from a diverse ethnic group. Across our workforce, we reached 56% overall diverse workforce representation, including 44% global gender diversity (inclusive of self-identified women and non-binary employees), and 54% U.S. ethnic diversity, as of December 31, 2022. Additional U.S. workforce diversity metrics can be found in our public EEO-1 reports and annual Global Impact Report available at https://about.pypl.com/values-in-action/reporting/default.aspx.
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Workforce representation is only one aspect of our broader DIE&B strategy. Through the leadership of our Global Head of DIE&B and dedicated DIE&B team, along with functional collaboration and accountability, we are focused on strengthening existing efforts and piloting new initiatives to promote an inclusive culture. In 2022, we continued our support for underrepresented communities and employees through activities such as enhanced strategic partnerships, new learning modules to promote effective sponsorship and inclusive performance management, and new tools and resources to incorporate DIE&B considerations across the business. We continue to evaluate DIE&B progress across the company and as part of the individual performance assessment under our 2022 annual incentive plan for our senior executives. In addition, we empower eight employee resource groups to promote community and belonging for employees that identify as Black, Latinx/Hispanic, women, interfaith, veterans, LGBTQ+, Asian, and disabled persons and their allies. These groups drive ongoing employee engagement around the world for all employees, regardless of background, to support and champion their peers and related causes.
Our evolving workplace
We remain focused on creating a culture of flexibility and community by designing ways to collaborate across diverse workplace models, whether working virtually, on-site, or using a hybrid approach. We empower functional leadership to determine the most appropriate workplace strategy for their teams to optimize employee productivity and engagement and deliver on business priorities. Across PayPal, we are focused on providing tools and resources to support our diverse and distributed teams. We believe this flexible approach has broadened our potential global talent pools.
As part of our annual ESG reporting, we provide additional information on our global talent strategy, including detailed representation metrics, in our Global Impact Report.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
The address of our principal executive offices is PayPal Holdings, Inc., 2211 North First Street, San Jose, California 95131. Our website is located at www.paypal.com, and our investor relations website is located at https://investor.pypl.com. From time to time, we may use our investor relations site and other online and social media channels, including the PayPal Newsroom (https://newsroom.paypal-corp.com/), Twitter handles (@PayPal and @PayPalNews), LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/company/paypal), Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/PayPalUSA/), YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/paypal), Dan Schulman’s LinkedIn profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-schulman/), Gabrielle Rabinovitch’s LinkedIn profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriellerabinovitch/), Dan Schulman’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/DanSchulmanPayPal/), and Dan Schulman’s Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/dan_schulman/) as a means of disclosing information about the Company, including information which could be deemed to be material to investors. Our Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports are available free of charge on our investor relations website as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. The SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. The content of our websites and information we may post on, provide to, or accessible through online and social media channels, including those mentioned above, are not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our websites or online and social media channels are intended to be inactive textual references only.
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Text extracted from the filing as submitted to EDGAR. Formatting, tables and exhibits are simplified for reading; the original document is authoritative for anything you rely on.