Paypal is cracking down on Forex
Paypal is one of the leading online payment processing companies, allowing you to send and receive money securely all over the world. This solution is particularly successful with private individuals transferring money one to another, and with small and medium sized businesses who prefer the easy billing service that Paypal delivers.
Paypal recently started to crack down on forex and it is rumored that it has stopped receiving account opening requests from new brokers and that it will soon start shutting down the service to existing brokers as well.
Reading Paypal’s own Use Policy you can see that Forex is prohibited as an activity, yet until now, much like the Chinese government, Paypal turned a blind eye towards it.
Specifically it prohibits the following activities:
3. relate to transactions that (f), are associated with the sale of traveler’s checks or money orders,
(h) involve currency exchanges or check cashing businesses
6. involve gambling, gaming and/or any other activity with an entry fee and a prize
(some brokers offer a deposit bonus which can be considered as an entry fee)
While it doesn’t sound too horrible for the North American or European audiences this move would come as a major blow for residents of developing countries and offshore brokers. In several countries this payment method is as popular as Visa or MasterCard and is certainly much cheaper.
I have no idea what the reason behind this decision is but I can speculate that this is due to prospective anti money laundering requirements that are being made more stringent by regulators worldwide in a forex market that was until recently completely wild.
Another reason might be the amount of chargebacks that occur with this payment method, mostly in developing countries, which is a costly procedure both for Paypal and Forex brokers.
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/use/index_frame-outside
Paypal is one of the leading online payment processing companies, allowing you to send and receive money securely all over the world. This solution is particularly successful with private individuals transferring money one to another, and with small and medium sized businesses who prefer the easy billing service that Paypal delivers.
Paypal recently started to crack down on forex and it is rumored that it has stopped receiving account opening requests from new brokers and that it will soon start shutting down the service to existing brokers as well.
Reading Paypal’s own Use Policy you can see that Forex is prohibited as an activity, yet until now, much like the Chinese government, Paypal turned a blind eye towards it.
Specifically it prohibits the following activities:
3. relate to transactions that (f), are associated with the sale of traveler’s checks or money orders,
(h) involve currency exchanges or check cashing businesses
6. involve gambling, gaming and/or any other activity with an entry fee and a prize (some brokers offer a deposit bonus which can be considered as an entry fee)
While it doesn’t sound too horrible for the North American or European audiences this move would come as a major blow for residents of developing countries and offshore brokers. In several countries this payment method is as popular as Visa or MasterCard and is certainly much cheaper.
I have no idea what the reason behind this decision is but I can speculate that this is due to prospective anti money laundering requirements that are being made more stringent by regulators worldwide in a forex market that was until recently completely wild.
Another reason might be the amount of chargebacks that occur with this payment method, mostly in developing countries, which is a costly procedure both for Paypal and Forex brokers.
Thanks for the info. Laundering money on PayPal is not uncommon.
I assume that more than a few traders in developing countries such as Nigeria, Indonesia and Malaysia withdraw forex profits to their PayPal accounts and then use this money to buy goods. This way, they bypass their bank account and credit card, avoiding tax payments.
This crackdown will slow the growth of forex in these markets.