PayPal is probably best known by many as a platform people use to send money to each other and make purchases on the internet. However, it seems that the company could be looking to expand and could be considering getting into trading stocks next. This is according to a report from CNBC who cites sources familiar with the plan.
According to the report, PayPal has allegedly hired Rich Hagen to head up its “Invest at PayPal” program. Hagen was the co-founder of online brokerage TradeKing, which was later bought up by Ally Invest. Unless PayPal’s hire of Hagen was for something else, his experience in the trading game will no doubt come in handy if PayPal wishes to become a stock trading platform.
To be fair the company’s interest shouldn’t come as a surprise. There seems to be an uptick in an interest to invest, plus PayPal did launch support for cryptocurrency last year, which is a form of investment these days, so for them to move into stocks doesn’t come as a complete surprise.
However, the report does note that if PayPal were to move forward, it probably won’t be this year. The report claims that if PayPal wanted to become a trading platform, they would need to complete a membership process through FINRA, a process that could take more than eight months, which means that it would probably be 2022 at the earliest.