PayPal expanded the availability of its PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin to facilitate cross-border payments in Asian and African markets.
PayPal, the largest debit-based electronic payment system, announced its financial partners will be able to use PYUSD to make cross-border money transfers using the infrastructure of Xoom, PayPal’s subsidiary that is an electronic money transfer provider.
According to the press release, the initiative aims to expand access to digital financial solutions in African and Asia-Pacific markets and enable international transactions through the use of PYUSD outside of traditional banking hours. The first partners to access international payment processing through PYUSD are Cebuana Lhuillier and Yellow Card.
Cebuana Lhuillier is the largest microfinance service provider in the Philippines.
Yellow Card is the first and largest licensed provider of stable coin-to-fiat currency exchange services in Africa.
Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President of Blockchain, Сryptocurrency and Digital Currencies аt PayPal, said in a press release that cross-border transactions are a key driver of economic growth and prosperity in developing countries. And the partnership between local FinTech companies and PayPal will enable seamless remittances across borders.
“At the local level, there is a need for privately owned local FinTech companies that can convert cryptocurrencies into what the user needs. The importance of local payment providers is that they are familiar to locals, and the sender of funds does not have to worry about converting them after receiving them,” said Max Krupyshev, CEO of CryptoProcessing.com, commenting on the importance of local financial solution providers in the Purpose Driven FinTech podcast.
The payment system PayPal released the dollar stablecoin PYUSD in September 2023. Later, in April this year, Xoom representatives announced the launch of an international payment service for residents of the United States, excluding the state of Hawaii, which implied the ability to send funds with zero commission to 160 countries using PYUSD.
