PayPal payments in Europe and Germany

PayPal writes that consumers and businesses use it in about 200 markets. The group was spun off from eBay in 2015 and owns the gateway Braintree and the US payment app Venmo (Wikipedia).

PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A. is a credit institution authorized and supervised by Luxembourg's CSSF. Its banking license covers the EU through passporting, so a German PayPal account is held with the Luxembourg entity. Payments regulation in Germany explains how passported licenses work alongside BaFin's own licenses.

A PayPal balance is electronic money. It is not a bank deposit, and the Luxembourg deposit guarantee scheme does not cover it. This distinction matters when comparing a wallet balance with money in a bank account.

German shoppers like to pay after delivery, and PayPal offers that through Pay upon Invoice. The buyer receives the goods, checks them and pays the invoice within 30 days; PayPal works with Ratepay, which assesses the risk and collects the payment (PayPal Developer). For larger amounts there is PayPal Ratenzahlung. PayPal and Amazon launched it on Amazon.de for customers in Germany and Austria, with terms from 3 to 48 months for purchases between 30 and 10,000 euros (PayPal). Buy now, pay later in Germany covers the consumer credit rules for such products.

PayPal launched PYUSD, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, in August 2023 for payments and transfers (Wikipedia). A stablecoin moves on a blockchain at any hour and settles in minutes, and payment firms test it for cross-border transfers and merchant payouts. In the EU, a token that references one currency counts as an e-money token under MiCA and may be offered to the public only by a bank or an e-money institution; MiCAR sets out those rules, and stablecoin payments explains how such a payment works.

PayPal speaks on the panel on the future of payments at Capital & Code, a conference in Frankfurt on stablecoins, tokenized funds and payments where Finance Loop is a media partner. The panel brings together Mastercard, AllUnity, Worldline and PayPal, and payments started by AI agents are among its topics.

Yes. PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A. is a Luxembourg credit institution supervised by the CSSF. Its license covers the EU, Germany included.

Pay upon Invoice is PayPal's German invoice payment. The buyer pays within 30 days after receiving the goods and needs no PayPal account. Ratepay assesses the risk and collects the payment.

Wero is the wallet of the European Payments Initiative, owned by European banks and payment firms, and it moves money directly between bank accounts. PayPal holds the customer's balance at its own bank and settles merchant payments itself. Wero payments in Germany covers the bank-owned option.