PayPal
PayPal is a global digital payments platform supporting 200+ markets and 25+ currencies, offering card payments, digital wallets, BNPL, A2A transactions, and merchant checkout integrations.
PayPal is a global digital payments platform supporting 200+ markets and 25+ currencies, offering card payments, digital wallets, BNPL, A2A transactions, and merchant checkout integrations. With advanced fraud tools, tokenization, PCI-DSS compliance, and instant payouts, PayPal provides secure global acceptance for e-commerce, SaaS, marketplaces, and digital services. Its coverage includes major regions across North America, Europe, LATAM, MENA, and APAC.
payment methods
What PayPal costs
PayPal quotes per merchant. What you are offered depends on your volume, your industry, the countries you sell in, your card mix and your risk profile — so a published headline rate would not be your rate. Ask them for a quote against your own numbers.
Licences and regulation
Authorisations PayPal holds, as published by the provider or regulator. Check the register entry before relying on it.
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)What you need to onboard
Company Details · Company Documents · Enhanced KYB & Due Diligence · Personal Details
Licences a merchant needs
Forex Licence (Local) · License · iGaming Licence (Local)
What the last check found
PayPal is not one licence-holder but a stack of them, and the brand name appears on none of the registers. Who holds a merchant's money depends entirely on geography.
EEA balances sit with PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., a Luxembourg credit institution — a bank. The group's Form 10-K says it is "licensed and subject to regulation as a credit institution in Luxembourg by the CSSF", and the CSSF's own entity record types it "Bank". That is materially different from a safeguarded e-money float: those funds are bank deposits. There is no Irish entity in the group's subsidiary list, so PayPal's EEA passport runs from Luxembourg, not Dublin.
UK balances moved to PayPal UK Ltd, a company incorporated only in March 2023, authorised as an electronic money institution (FRN 994790) with separate references for consumer credit (996405) and cryptoassets (1000741). The FCA's firm checker returns PayPal UK Ltd three times, once for each reference, all at SE1 9PZ, and lists only firms that currently hold permission, so all three are live. A UK merchant's money is therefore safeguarded, not deposit-guaranteed — the opposite of its EEA counterpart. PayPal Europe Services Limited (FRN 742277) is a separate firm on the same register and is not part of this listing.
Singapore runs through PayPal Pte. Ltd. (Major Payment Institution, six activities). Australia is unusual: PayPal Australia holds an APRA banking authority as a purchased payment facility provider. The US is PayPal, Inc. under state money transmitter licences, including California number 2077, with around 48 others in existence.
Only the three UK references are recorded as authorisations here. The Luxembourg CSSF record, the MAS directory entry, the APRA banking authority and the California DFPI registration could not be opened, so they rest on PayPal's own regulatory disclosures and a reader following a link would have nothing to read. India: PayPal does not appear on the RBI's list of entities holding a Certificate of Authorisation. Brazil (PayPal do Brasil IP Ltda.) and Canada (FINTRAC) are unverified.
Checked against PayPal’s own documentation on 21 October 2026. Coverage changes; confirm anything you are about to build on.
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Sources · 17
- PayPal REST API reference — country codes · developer.paypal.comUsed for the 201 countries and regions the PayPal REST APIs supportChecked 19 October 2026
- PayPal REST API reference — currency codes · developer.paypal.comUsed for the 25 currencies PayPal supportsChecked 19 October 2026
- PayPal Holdings, Inc. FY2025 Form 10-K, Exhibit 21.01 — List of Subsidiaries · sec.govUsed for Exact legal entity names and jurisdictions; absence of any Irish or Indian entity
- PayPal Holdings, Inc. FY2025 Form 10-K (filed 3 Feb 2026) · sec.govUsed for Entity-to-regulator statements (CSSF credit institution; FCA electronic money institution; US state money transmitter licences); HQ address 2211 North First Street, San Jose CA; Delaware incorporation
- Zettle by PayPal — UK Payment Terms and Conditions · zettle.comUsed for PayPal UK Ltd FCA firm reference numbers 994790 (EMI), 996405 (consumer credit), 1000741 (cryptoassets)
- PayPal Point of Sale Terms and Conditions (UK) · zettle.comUsed for Second, independent confirmation of the three FRNs and of PayPal UK Ltd company number 14741686
- Companies House — company search, PayPal UK Ltd · find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.ukUsed for PayPal UK Ltd company number 14741686, incorporated 20 March 2023
- PayPal Impressum (Germany) · paypal.comUsed for PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A. — R.C.S. Luxembourg B 118 349, CSSF supervision, EU-wide bank status
- CSSF warning concerning misuse of the name PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A. · cssf.luUsed for CSSF classifies the entity as "Bank" and links to its supervised-entity record 7074805
- MAS Financial Institutions Directory — PAYPAL PTE. LTD. · eservices.mas.gov.sgUsed for Major Payment Institution licence and the six licensed payment services
- APRA Register of Authorised Deposit-taking Institutions · apra.gov.auUsed for PayPal Australia Pty Limited listed as a provider of purchased payment facilities; banking authorisation dated 26 October 2006
- Conditions on banking authority 2023 – PayPal Australia Pty Ltd · legislation.gov.auUsed for Federal Register of Legislation identifier for the current conditions on the APRA banking authority
- California DFPI regulated entity record — PayPal, Inc. · dfpi.ca.govUsed for Money transmitter licence number 2077 and San Jose address
- RBI — Certificates of Authorisation issued under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 · rbi.org.inUsed for Negative finding: no PayPal entity holds an RBI Certificate of Authorisation
- PayPal — History & facts · about.pypl.comUsed for Headquarters location; "more than 25 years" in digital commerce, consistent with a 1998 founding
- FCA Financial Services Register · register.fca.org.ukUsed for Intended primary source for the UK FRNs; the register is a JavaScript application and could not be read programmatically
- FCA Firm Checker — search for "PayPal" · fca.org.ukUsed for Register read of the three UK references: PayPal UK Ltd appears three times, FRN 994790, 996405 and 1000741, all at SE1 9PZ. The firm checker lists only firms that currently hold FCA permission, so it also establishes that all three are live.Checked 21 October 2026
17 sources · last checked 21 October 2026 — each one says which claim it supports.
Compiled from public sources — verify with PayPal before you sign anything. How we compile this · Suggest a correction ·