Customers of Equity Bank Kenya will now be able to withdraw money sent to them through the international payment solution provider PayPal in a day, down from the previous three days.
The reduction of the waiting time is aimed at increasing usage of the platform which is part of several that people use to make global remittances.
PayPal allows traders to send payments for goods across countries or remittances by Kenyans living abroad using an internet account.
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The bank, which is the only institution offering a withdrawal service for PayPal in the country, enables account holders to get funds paid from the platform to their bank accounts in either shillings or US dollars.
The bank seeks to increase usage of the platform as it eyes higher revenue through commissions charged on such transactions.
“The reduction in the settlement period is of great significance as the country moves towards growing the uptake of e-commerce,” Equity Bank Kenya managing director Gerald Warui said in a statement.
“Covid-19 has forced many small businesses to adopt a digital operating model including the adoption of cash lite payment models such as direct payments into their Equity accounts through PayPal.”
He added that the reduced settlement period will allow businesses to effectively receive payments, enabling them to manage their cash flows and accelerating the growth of their businesses.
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The move comes as Equity increases its investment in digital banking channels using its own infrastructure besides collaborating with other parties.
Out of the 975.1 million transactions processed by the bank’s parent company Equity Group for the nine months to September 2021, 97 percent were on mobile channels.
Only 30.1 million transactions or three percent were handled at branches and ATMs. The group earned Sh953.5 million in revenue from e-commerce over the period.
Diaspora commissions, however, dropped by nine percent to Sh1.2 billion despite a 22 percent increase in transaction volumes to 257 million.
