Barclays and PayPal join forces to help customers enhance their digital payments
Barclays [LON: BARC] has announced a new strategic partnership with PayPal [NASDAQ: PYPL] that is designed to enable customers to manage and use their Barclays and PayPal accounts together with greater ease, for the first time.
The partnership is expected to benefit millions of consumer and small business customers, and initially focus on enhancing products and services for consumers in the UK and the US. In the UK, small business customers will also benefit from the partnership with integrated experiences.
Enhancing digital payment experiences for Barclays and Barclaycard consumers
Consumers are expected to benefit from a raft of new features that will make it even easier to manage their PayPal account in Barclays digital channels, and to use their Barclays products in their PayPal digital wallet to pay online, on mobile or in app.
These may include ways to seamlessly add Barclays credit and debit cards to their PayPal wallet; to update these cards automatically in PayPal when they reach their expiry date; and to display their Barclays card image in the PayPal wallet to allow consumers to easily select their preferred way to pay.
Expanding mobile payments choice and reach
In a first of its kind partnership, PayPal and Barclays will explore unique ways to connect Pingit and PayPal to improve how customers can move and manage their money. The partnership will also explore opportunities for US consumers to redeem Barclays reward points at businesses that accept PayPal worldwide.
Making business management easier for UK SME clients
Barclays SmartBusiness Dashboard enables UK SME clients to see their everyday business information from third-party apps, alongside their Barclays bank account on a single platform. PayPal’s small business customers will now be able to choose to see a snapshot of their PayPal balance, recent transactions and sales on the Barclays SmartBusiness Dashboard. Users will also be able to move seamlessly from the SmartBusiness Dashboard to their PayPal account for further insights.
Barclays is the first bank in the UK to collaborate with PayPal in this way, saving SMEs time and putting them in control, as they see marketing, inventory and other valuable data all in one place.
Strengthening security and protections against fraud
Both companies will draw on their extensive data analytics and risk management capabilities to combat online fraud together. Barclays and PayPal will endeavour to optimise existing products and services to fight against increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals, as well as creating new solutions to manage risk more effectively.
Ashok Vaswani, Barclays UK CEO, said: “Our customers and clients live in an increasingly connected world and this is why we are working with PayPal to make services more joined up and convenient for them. By joining forces, we can make it much easier for people to manage their money and payments. Each of these new features – whether removing the hassle of updating an expired card, connecting with Pingit, or being able to see all your finances in one place, are about designing the very best customer experience. Barclays is becoming a digital company and I believe this strategic partnership with PayPal will provide the first of many new developments in which we join up with partners to enhance digital journeys.”
Gary Marino, Chief Commercial Officer at PayPal, said, “The US and the UK are our two biggest markets, where we share millions of customers with Barclays. This partnership has enormous potential to have a positive impact on people’s financial lives across both countries. We can ensure our consumers and small business customers are fully equipped to take advantage of the new digital economy. Our work with Barclays has already begun, and we look forward to introducing new experiences for our joint customers very soon.”