First National Bank on Thursday afternoon issued a (very, very terse) statement confirming the buzz. Yes, it is in talks with the eBay-owned payment system. No, it isn’t saying anything else.
FNB is clearly after Vodacom’s record as the most terse publicly listed company. Here is the entire statement it issued on Thursday. Verbatim. In full.
Virginia Magapatona, Head of Corporate Communications at First National Bank (FNB), today confirmed that FNB is in discussions with PayPal and the South African Reserve Bank and further information will be released in due course.
What is missing, you ask? An expected date for implementation, any indication of what phase the talks are in, an expression of excitement about the talks, a mention that they are exclusive for South Africa. It doesn’t even have the traditional “about” blurb for PayPal, for the love of goodness.
So if you were of the conspiracy-theory camp that held FNB had deliberately leaked the rumour onto the social media circuit, well, you couldn’t have been more wrong.
We still believe, on the basis of very little data, that the parties are keen to conclude this before the World Cup. We also continue to believe that FNB will integrate its eBucks hybrid alternative currency/loyalty programme with PayPal, which would make for a very interesting product indeed.
By Phillip de Wet
Read more: The Daily Maverick
It will give a lift to local online business by providing a recognised international payment portal. However, the fly in the ointment will be the transaction costs.
I cannot imagine, given the track record of SA banks that the Papal portal will be cheap. FNB will levy fees, peraps smaller fees for FNB clients, and so will Paypal. Keeping prices low enough to make product sales competitive against the rest of the world will be a delicate balancing act.
SARS and the Reserve Bank will also have their words to say. With an easy starting point, SARS in particular will look eagerly at the transfer of dosh from Paypal accounts into local bank accounts so they can start the usual rape and pillage in the name of taxation. They will also look at overseas purchases of downloadable material like software and e-books so they can levy VAT and ad valorem duties.
Paypal may be "A Good Thing", but there will be a sting or two in the tail.