PayPal supports more Asian currencies
Domestic and cross border trading will now be easier and more flexible for Asian residents using PayPal's Internet-based payment system.
PayPal, a unit of online auctioneer eBay, announced last week that it will support payments in 10 new currencies, allowing customers to send, receive and hold funds in a total of 17 currencies worldwide.
The new supported currencies include the Singapore dollar, Hong Kong dollar, New Zealand dollar, Swedish krona, Swiss franc, Danish krone, Norwegian krone, Czech koruna, Hungarian forint, and Polish zloty.
These currencies add to the ones available to PayPal customers, including the euro, US dollar, Australian dollar, British pound sterling, Canadian dollar, Japanese Yen and Chinese RMB.
PayPal also announced that residents in 48 new markets can now use PayPal in their local markets to send money online. These new markets include Asian nations like Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, countries which had no prior access to PayPal's service.
"With these new offerings, PayPal continues to make domestic and cross-border trading easier and more convenient for its millions of customers around the globe," said Mathias Entenmann, vice president of International for PayPal, in a press release.
Launched in 1998, PayPal serves as a convenient digital alternative to traditional paper-based methods such as checks and money orders. The service enables any individual--or business--with an e-mail address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online.
According to PayPal, it now handles 114 million accounts globally.
Farihan Bahrin is a freelance IT writer based in Singapore.