COVID-19's Cashless Culture Drove Record Q3: PayPal CEO

With the pandemic showing “no signs of slowing,” cash use is declining, said PayPal CEO Dan Schulman on a Q3 call: “Digitization of the global economy, combined with the rise of digital wallets, will drive our growth over the next decade.” Payment volume grew a record 36%, he said Monday. Transactions were just over $4 billion, a record and up 30% from the 2019 quarter, he said. The platform added 15.2 million “net new actives”, (NNAs) its second highest after Q2's 21.3 million, said Schulman. PayPal gained more than 1.5 million new merchants, more than twice the pre-coronavirus rate, he said. “We now have 28 million merchants on our platform. We ended Q3 with 361 million active accounts, and we remain on track to end the year with a record 70 million NNAs.” COVID-19 caused “a step change in e-commerce penetration this year,” said Chief Financial Officer John Rainey: “We expect there to be a deep and permanent change to commerce and consumer behavior, both in the U.S. and internationally.”