Globe and PayPal Southeast Asia top executives discuss the benefits of the partnership during the media press conference and launch at the Globe headquarters in Bonifacio Global City on February 8, 2017.
Globe and its GCash service, teamed up with global firm PayPal. It is now easier for Filipino Paypal users to withdraw and transfer funds from their account by linking to a GCash account.
Linking the accounts would give PayPal users the ability to access their funds through GCash, transfer PayPal balances to GCash, and withdraw them from automated teller machines (ATMs) and Globe partner outlets through the GCash Mastercard.
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“The main benefit to this is that users, especially micro and small enterprises and freelancers, can now withdraw funds within a day at zero cost,” said John Rubio, chief executive officer of Globe’s financial technology arm Mynt, during the launch of the partnership.
Previously, micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) owners and freelancers who transferred PayPal balances to their bank accounts would have to wait several days to be able to withdraw the cash. They would also be charged corresponding transfer and withdrawal fees. Now they can instantly withdraw it after transferring the paypal to their Gcash account provided you have a Gcash Debit card and you know the pin.
Unlike developed countries, the Philippines does not yet have fully developed financial infrastructure for seamless transfers between institutions. As a result, many intermediaries have to fill that role and add fees, explained Rubio.
Rubio did point out that in some instances, if users withdraw through ATMs, there may be a P15 non-bank card fee. But this fee is smaller compared to the previous charges, which he said could easily range from 5% to 10% of the withdrawal amount.
“The initial market we are looking at is the freelancer market that already has about 1.4 million. But you don’t stop there – the entrepreneurial community is growing everyday,” Rubio added.
Paypal is very positive and optimistic about the Philippines.
An estimated 1.4 million freelancers come from all types of social backgrounds. A good proportion of them, he added, could face problems with international transfers since they may not have bank accounts or bank accounts linked to PayPal.
“So we’ve tried to solve that problem by leveraging the strength of PayPal, almost the de facto standard for ewallet type transactions internationally, with Globe’s distribution network here in the Philippines,” Cu said.
Globe has more than 12,000 partner outlets where GCash withdrawals and deposits can be made nationwide.
Cu added that Globe’s partnership with PayPal is just in the first phase, with more to come
