Today In Payments Around The World: Klarna Unveils New UK HQ; eBay Moves Into Financial Services With UK Small Business Loans

Today In Payments Around The World: Klarna Unveils New UK HQ; eBay Moves Into Financial Services With UK Small Business Loans

In today’s top payments news around the world, Klarna revealed London to be the location of its U.K. headquarters, while eBay is launching a tool that will offer loans to small companies selling on its platform in the U.K. Plus, the pandemic wasn’t enough to completely dampen global remittance flows.

Klarna Opens New UK Headquarters

Klarna is keeping its British expansion going with a new headquarters in London and an expanded Manchester office. For its part, the new U.K. headquarters is 11,000 square feet of space on the top floor of a building in London’s Holborn district. The buy now, pay later (BNPL) company intends to double its U.K. staff — currently at 200 — within the year. More than 14 million shoppers and 13,000 merchants in the U.K. harness Klarna.

eBay Makes Move Into Financial Services With UK Small Business Loans

eBay is rolling out a new financial services tool called Capital for eBay Business Sellers (CEBS), which will provide loans to small firms selling on its platform in the U.K. “We think this is a field ripe for innovation and there’s a lot of unmet demand for better service for online businesses,” eBay U.K. General Manager Murray Lambell said in a published report. “We think eBay is well-positioned to deal with this.”

$540 Billion Remittance Figure Higher Than World Bank Expectations

The coronavirus wasn’t enough to fully dampen international remittance flows. An overall $540 billion in remittances was transmitted to low- and middle-income countries last year, which was 1.6 percent below 2019’s total and a less-than-expected decline. “The main drivers for the steady flow included fiscal stimulus that resulted in better-than-expected economic conditions in host countries, a shift in flows from cash to digital and from informal to formal channels, and cyclical movements in oil prices and currency exchange rates,” according to the World Bank.