Document
 
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
 
 
FORM 10-K
 
ý
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018.
OR
o
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the Transition Period from             to             .
Commission file number 001-36859
   
 
PayPal Holdings, Inc.
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)
 
 
Delaware
47-2989869
(State or Other Jurisdiction of
Incorporation or Organization)
(I.R.S. Employer
Identification No.)
 
 
2211 North First Street
San Jose, California
95131
(Address of Principal Executive Offices)
(Zip Code)
(408) 967-1000
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
  
 
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class
Name of each exchange on which
registered
Common Stock, $0.0001 par value per share
The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934:
None
 
 
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. 
Yes [x]    No [ ]

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act.    Yes [ ]    No [x]

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes [x]    No [ ]




Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).     Yes [x]   No [ ]




Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§ 229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrant's knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.    [x] 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. :
Large accelerated filer
ý
Accelerated filer
o
 
 
 
 
Non-accelerated filer
o  
Smaller reporting company
o
 
 
 
 
 
 
Emerging growth company
o
 
 
 
 
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. o
 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).      Yes  [ ]    No  [x]
As of June 30, 2018, the aggregate market value of the registrant's common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $98.5 billion based on the closing sale price as reported on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.
As of January 31, 2019, there were 1,173,209,367 shares of common stock outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its 2019 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated herein by reference in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the extent stated herein. Such proxy statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2018.


 


Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
 
Page
Part I
Item 1.
Item 1A.
Item 1B.
Item 2.
Item 3.
Item 4.
Part II
Item 5.
Item 6.
Item 7.
Item 7A.
Item 8.
Item 9.
Item 9A.
Item 9B.
Part III
Item 10.
Item 11.
Item 12.
Item 13.
Item 14.
Part IV
Item 15.
Item 16.
Presentation of Information
On July 17, 2015, PayPal Holdings, Inc. (“PayPal Holdings”) became an independent publicly traded company through the pro rata distribution by eBay (defined below) of 100% of the outstanding common stock of PayPal Holdings to eBay’s stockholders (which we refer to as the “separation” or the “distribution”). For additional information, see “Business—Separation from eBay Inc.” To accomplish this separation, in January 2015, eBay incorporated PayPal Holdings, Inc., which ultimately became the parent of PayPal, Inc. and holds directly or indirectly all of the assets and liabilities associated with PayPal, Inc. Unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires, references to “we,” “our,” “us,” “the Company,” or “PayPal” refer to PayPal Holdings, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries or, in the case of information as of dates or for periods prior to our separation from eBay, the consolidated entities of the payments business of eBay, including PayPal, Inc. and certain other assets and liabilities that were historically held at the eBay corporate level, but were specifically identifiable and attributable to the payments business, and references to our “Payments Platform” mean our combined payment solution capabilities, including our PayPal, PayPal Credit, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom, and iZettle products.
References in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to “eBay” refer to eBay Inc., a Delaware corporation, and its consolidated subsidiaries, which prior to the separation and distribution, but not after such date, included the business and operations of PayPal.
Trademarks, Trade Names and Service Marks
PayPal owns or has rights to use the trademarks, service marks, and trade names that it uses in conjunction with the operation of its business. Some of the more important trademarks that PayPal owns or has rights to use that appear in this Annual Report on Form 10-K include: PayPal®, PayPal Credit®, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom and iZettle, which may be registered or trademarked in the United States and other jurisdictions. PayPal’s rights to some of these trademarks may be limited to select markets. Each trademark, trade name, or service mark of any other company appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K is, to PayPal’s knowledge, owned by such other company.


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PART I


FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements that involve expectations, plans or intentions, such as those relating to future business, future results of operations or financial condition, new or planned features or services, or management strategies. You can identify these forward-looking statements by words such as “may,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “project,” “forecast,” and other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, those discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as in our consolidated financial statements, related notes, and the other information appearing elsewhere in this report and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). We do not intend, and undertake no obligation except as required by law, to update any of our forward-looking statements after the date of this report to reflect actual results or future events or circumstances. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. You should read the information in this report in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes that appear elsewhere in this report.

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

Overview

PayPal Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in January 2015 and is a leading technology platform and digital payments company that enables digital and mobile payments on behalf of consumers and merchants worldwide. PayPal is committed to democratizing financial services and empowering people and businesses to join and thrive in the global economy. Our goal is to enable our consumers and merchants to manage and move their money anywhere in the world, anytime, on any platform and using any device. Our combined payment solutions, including our PayPal, PayPal Credit, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom and iZettle products, compose our proprietary Payments Platform.

PayPal’s service enables our customers to send and receive payments. We operate a two-sided network where both merchants and consumers have PayPal accounts with stored balance functionality. Since PayPal serves as a proprietary payment method that is accepted by merchants, we are more than a connection to third-party payment networks. Our service enables the completion of payments on our Payments Platform on behalf of our customers. We offer our customers the flexibility to use their accounts to purchase and receive payment for goods and services, as well as to transfer and withdraw funds. We enable consumers to exchange funds more safely with merchants using a variety of funding sources, which may include a bank account, a PayPal account balance, a PayPal Credit account, a credit or debit card, or other stored value products such as coupons and gift cards. Our PayPal, Venmo and Xoom products also make it safer and simpler for friends and family to transfer funds to each other. We offer merchants an end-to-end payments solution that provides authorization and settlement capabilities, as well as instant access to funds. We help merchants connect with their customers and manage risk. We enable consumers to engage in cross-border shopping and merchants to extend their global reach while reducing the complexity and friction involved in enabling overseas and cross-border trade.

We earn revenues primarily by charging fees for completing payment transactions for our customers and other payment-related services that are typically based on the volume of activity processed on our Payments Platform. Generally, we do not charge consumers to fund or draw from their accounts; however, we generate revenue from consumers on fees charged for foreign currency exchange. We also earn revenue by providing other value added services which comprise revenue earned through partnerships, our PayPal Credit products, subscription fees, gateway services, and other services that we provide to our merchants and consumers. Our gateway services, which include our Payflow Gateway services and Braintree Gateway services, provide the technology that links a merchant’s website to its processing network and merchant account and enables merchants to accept payments online with credit or debit cards.


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Strategy

Our ability to grow revenue is affected by, among other things, consumer spending patterns, merchant and consumer adoption of digital payment methods, the expansion of multiple commerce channels, the growth of mobile devices and merchant and consumer applications on those devices, the growth of consumers globally with internet and mobile access, the pace of transition from cash and checks to digital forms of payment, our share of the digital payments market, and our ability to innovate and bring new products and services that merchants and consumers value. Our strategy to drive growth in our business includes the following:

Growing our core business: through expanding our global capabilities, customer base and scale, increasing our customers' use of our products and services by better addressing their everyday needs related to accessing, managing and moving money, and expanding the adoption of our solutions by new merchants and consumers;

Expanding our value proposition for customers: by focusing on trust and simplicity, providing risk management and insights from our two-sided Payments Platform, and being technology and platform agnostic;

Extending through strategic partnerships: by building new strategic partnerships to provide better experiences for our customers, offering greater choice and flexibility, acquiring new customers, and reinforcing our role in the ecosystem; and

Seeking new areas of growth: organically and through acquisitions in our existing and new international markets around the world and focusing on innovation both in the digital and physical world.

Key Performance Metrics

keymetrics2018a05.jpg

We measure the relevance of our products and services to our customers, and therefore the success of our business, through active accounts, payment transactions, and payment volume:

Active Accounts: An active account is an account registered directly with PayPal or a platform access partner that has completed a transaction on our Payments Platform, not including gateway-exclusive transactions, within the past 12 months. A platform access partner is a third party whose customers are provided access to PayPal's Payments Platform through such third party's login credentials. As of December 31, 2018, we had approximately 267 million active accounts across more than 200 markets. A market is a geographic area or political jurisdiction, such as a country, territory, or protectorate, in which we offer some or all of our services. A country, territory, or protectorate is identified by a distinct set of laws and regulations.


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Number of Payment Transactions: Number of payment transactions is the total number of payments, net of payment reversals, successfully completed on our Payments Platform or enabled by PayPal via a partner payment solution, not including gateway-exclusive transactions.

Total Payment Volume (“TPV”): TPV is the value of payments, net of reversals, successfully completed on our Payments Platform or enabled by PayPal via a partner payment solution, not including gateway-exclusive transactions.

Our Strengths

Our business is built on a strong foundation designed to drive growth and differentiate us from our competitors. We believe that our competitive strengths include the following:

Two-sided Platform—our platform connecting merchants and consumers enables PayPal to offer unique end-to-end product experiences while gaining valuable insights into customer behavior through our data. Our platform provides for simple digital and mobile transactions while being both technology and platform agnostic.

Scale—our global scale allows us to drive organic growth. As of December 31, 2018, we had 267 million active accounts, which included 21 million active merchant accounts. In 2018, we processed $578 billion of TPV in more than 200 markets around the world.

Brands—we have built well-recognized and trusted brands. Our marketing efforts play an important role in building brand visibility, usage, and overall preference among customers.

Risk Management—our risk management system and tokenization usage are designed to help keep our customers safe and to help ensure we process legitimate transactions around the world, while identifying and reducing illegal, high-risk, or fraudulent transactions.

Regulatory—we believe that our regulatory licenses, which enable us to operate in markets around the world, are a distinct advantage and support business growth.

Technology

Our Payments Platform utilizes a combination of proprietary and third-party technologies and services to efficiently and securely facilitate transactions between millions of merchants and consumers worldwide across different channels, markets and networks. Our Payments Platform connects with financial service providers around the world and allows consumers to make purchases using a wide range of payment methods, regardless of where a merchant is located. Consumers who use our Payments Platform can send payments in more than 200 markets across the globe and in more than 100 currencies, withdraw funds to their bank accounts in 56 currencies and hold balances in their PayPal accounts in 25 currencies.

A transaction on our Payments Platform can involve multiple participants in addition to us, including a merchant, a consumer, and the consumer’s funding source provider. We have developed intuitive user interfaces, customer tools, and transaction completion database and network applications on our Payments Platform that help our customers utilize our suite of products and services. Our Payments Platform, open application programming interfaces, and developer tools are designed to enable developers to innovate with ease and offer robust applications to our global ecosystem of merchants and consumers, while at the same time maintaining the security of our customers’ financial information.

The technology infrastructure supporting our Payments Platform simplifies the storage and processing of large amounts of data and facilitates the deployment and operation of large-scale global products and services. Our technology infrastructure is designed around industry-standard architectures intended to reduce downtime in the event of outages or catastrophic occurrences. Our Payments Platform incorporates multiple layers of protection for continuity and system redundancy purposes and to help address cybersecurity challenges. We have a comprehensive cybersecurity program designed to protect our technology infrastructure and Payments Platform against these challenges, including regularly testing our systems to address potential vulnerabilities. We strive to continually improve our technology infrastructure and Payments Platform to enhance the customer experience and to increase efficiency, scalability, and security.


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Merchant and Consumer Payment Solutions

Our combined payment solution capabilities offer our merchants and consumers a broad range of products and services, enabling our merchants to securely and simply receive payments from their customers while allowing our consumers to make seamless transactions across different markets and networks.

We partner with our merchants to help grow and expand their businesses by improving sales conversion; providing global reach, offering alternative payment methods; reducing losses through proprietary protection programs, providing fraud prevention and risk management solutions; and leveraging data analytics. We generate revenues from merchants primarily by charging fees for completing their payment transactions and other payment-related services. Merchants can onboard quickly with PayPal and are generally not required to invest in new or specialized hardware. We do not charge merchants setup or recurring fees for our standard service. We offer access to credit products for certain small and medium-sized merchants through our PayPal Working Capital and PayPal Business Loan products, which we collectively refer to as our business financing offerings. Our PayPal Working Capital product allows businesses to borrow a certain percentage of their annual payment volume processed by PayPal for a fixed fee. Our PayPal Business Loan product provides businesses with short-term financing for a fixed fee based on an evaluation of both the applying business as well as the business owner. We believe that our business financing offerings allow us to deepen our engagement with our existing small and medium-sized business merchants and expand services to new merchants by providing access to capital that may not be available effectively or efficiently from traditional banks or other lending providers.

PayPal is a popular form of payment for mobile commerce, and our business has grown with the increased adoption of mobile devices. We believe our Braintree products strengthen our position in mobile payments and extend our coverage to a new class of retailers and service providers that offer their services primarily through mobile applications. Through a single Braintree integration, a merchant can begin accepting payments with credit or debit cards, PayPal, PayPal Credit, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and other payment solutions. We also offer gateway services, including our Payflow Gateway services and Braintree Gateway services, which enable merchants to accept payments online with credit or debit cards. Our gateway services provide the payment gateway technology that links a merchant’s website to its processing network and enable merchants to accept payments online with credit and debit cards.

We believe that our recent acquisition of iZettle in September 2018 will enable us to further expand our in-store presence and strengthen our Payments Platform to help small businesses around the world grow and thrive in an omnichannel retail environment. iZettle offers a card acceptance service that enables small businesses to take credit and debit card payments, as well as a software solution to record, manage and analyze sales. iZettle provides in-store capabilities in eleven countries, as well as near-term, in-store expansion opportunities into other existing PayPal markets.

We focus on providing affordable consumer products intended to democratize the management and movement of money. We generate revenue from consumers on fees charged for foreign currency exchange and on interest and fees from our PayPal Credit product. We offer our PayPal Credit product to consumers as a potential funding source at checkout. Once a consumer is approved for credit, PayPal Credit is made available as a funding source in his or her account. We believe that our consumer credit products allow us to increase engagement with consumers and merchants on our two-sided network and differentiate ourselves from other payment processors by helping merchants drive incremental sales through products like PayPal Credit. We are responsible for servicing functions related to all of our credit products. In the U.S., credit originating from our PayPal Working Capital and PayPal Business Loan products is currently extended through third-party financial institutions from whom we purchase the related receivables. For our consumer and merchant credit products outside the U.S., we extend credit through certain international PayPal subsidiaries.

During the fourth quarter of 2017, we expanded our strategic consumer credit relationship with Synchrony Financial and agreed to sell our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio to Synchrony Bank. Following the closing of this transaction in July 2018, Synchrony Bank became the exclusive issuer of the U.S. PayPal branded consumer credit program and we no longer hold an ownership interest in receivables generated through the program.

We offer consumers person-to-person (“P2P”) payment solutions through our PayPal, Venmo and Xoom products. PayPal continues to be a key driver of our total P2P volumes, enabling both domestic and international P2P transfers across our Payments Platform. Our Venmo app in the U.S. is a leading mobile application used to move money between our customers and to make purchases at approved merchants. Xoom is an international money transfer service that enables our customers to send money to, pay bills for, and send prepaid mobile phone reloads to people around the world in a secure, fast, and cost-effective way, using a mobile device or personal computer. P2P is a significant customer acquisition channel that facilitates organic growth by enabling potential PayPal users to establish active accounts with us at the time they make or receive a P2P payment.


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Protecting Merchants and Consumers

Protecting merchants and consumers on our Payments Platform from financial and fraud loss is imperative to successfully competing in the payments industry and sustainably growing our business. Fraudulent activities, such as account takeover, identity theft, and counterparty malicious activities, represent a significant risk to merchants and consumers, as well as their payment partners. We provide merchants and consumers with protection programs on most purchase transactions completed on our Payments Platform, excluding gateway-exclusive transactions or situations where our customer agreements specifically do not provide for protections. We believe that these programs, which protect both merchants and consumers from financial and fraud loss due primarily to fraud and counterparty non-performance, are generally much broader than similar protections provided by other participants in the payments industry. As a result, merchants may incur losses for chargebacks and other claims on certain transactions when using other payments providers that the merchants would not incur if they used our payments services. We also provide consumer protection against losses on qualifying purchases and accept claims for review up to 180 days post-transaction. We believe that this protection is generally consistent with, or better than, that offered by other payments providers. These programs are designed to promote confidence on both the part of consumers (i.e., when using our Payment Platform, they will only be required to pay if they receive their purchased item or service in the condition significantly as described) and merchants (i.e., they will receive payment for the product they deliver to the customer).

Our ability to protect both consumers and merchants is based largely on our proprietary, end-to-end Payments Platform and our ability to leverage the data from both sides of transactions on our two-sided network (i.e., from buyers and sellers, and from senders and receivers of payments). We believe mobile devices will continue to play a significant and increasing role in commerce, including by creating the opportunities to make our ecosystem safer. For example, PayPal is able to use location data from mobile devices and growing protection for the mobile operating environment to reduce financial and fraud risk to merchants and consumers. Our ongoing investment in systems and processes, designed to enhance the safety and security of our products, reflects our goal of having PayPal recognized as one of the world’s most trusted payments brands.
 
Competition

The global payments industry is highly competitive, rapidly changing, highly innovative, and increasingly subject to regulatory scrutiny and oversight. We compete against a wide range of businesses, including those that are larger than we are, have a dominant and secure position, or offer other products and services to consumers and merchants that we do not offer, as well as smaller companies that may be able to respond more quickly in the face of regulatory and technological changes. We compete against all forms of payments, including credit and debit cards; automated clearing house and bank transfers; other online payment services; mobile payments; and offline payment methods, including cash and check.

We compete primarily on the basis of the following:

ability to attract, retain, and engage both merchants and consumers with our two-sided platform;
ability to demonstrate to merchants that they may achieve incremental sales by using and offering our services to consumers;
consumer confidence in the safety and security of transactions on our Payments Platform, including the ability for consumers to use our products and services without sharing their financial information with the merchant or any other party they are paying;
simplicity and transparency of our fee structure;
ability to develop products and services across multiple commerce channels, including mobile payments, credit products, and payments at the retail point of sale;
trust in our dispute resolution and buyer and seller protection programs;
customer service experience;
brand recognition and preference;
website, mobile platform and application onboarding, ease-of-use, speed, availability, and dependability;
the technology and payment agnostic nature of our Payments Platform;
system reliability and data security;
ability to assist merchants in complying with payments-related laws and regulations ;
ease and quality of integration into third-party mobile applications and operating systems; and
quality of developer tools, such as our application programming interfaces and software development kits.

In addition to the discussion in this section, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the caption “We face substantial and increasingly intense competition worldwide in the global payments industry” for further discussion of the potential impact of competition on our business.


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Research and Development

Total research and development expense was $1.1 billion, $953 million and $834 million in 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Intellectual Property

The protection of our intellectual property, including our trademarks (particularly those covering the PayPal name), patents, copyrights, domain names, trade dress, and trade secrets is important to the success of our business. We seek to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on applicable laws and regulations in the U.S. and internationally, as well as a variety of administrative procedures. We also rely on contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary rights when offering or procuring products and services. We have routinely entered into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and non-disclosure agreements with parties with whom we conduct business, to control use, access to, and limit disclosure of our proprietary information.

We pursue the registration of our domain names, trademarks, and service marks in the U.S. and internationally. Additionally, we have filed patent applications in the U.S. and in international jurisdictions covering certain aspects of our proprietary technology and new innovations. We have registered our core brands as domain names and as trademarks in the U.S. and a large number of other jurisdictions. We also have in place an active program to continue to secure and enforce trademarks and domain names that corresponds to our brands in markets of interest.

For additional information regarding some of the risks relating to our intellectual property, including costs of protecting our intellectual property, see the information in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the captions “We are subject to patent litigation” and “We may be unable to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, or third parties may allege that we are infringing their intellectual property rights.”

Government Regulation

We operate globally and in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment characterized by a heightened regulatory focus on all aspects of the payments industry. That focus continues to become even more heightened as regulators on a global basis focus on such important issues as countering terrorist financing, anti-money laundering, privacy, cybersecurity, and consumer protection. Some of the laws and regulations to which we are subject were enacted recently, and the laws and regulations applicable to us, including those enacted prior to the advent of digital and mobile payments, are continuing to evolve through legislative and regulatory action and judicial interpretation. New or changing laws and regulations, including how such laws and regulations are interpreted and implemented, as well as increased penalties and enforcement actions related to non-compliance, could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Therefore, we monitor these areas closely to design compliant solutions for our customers who depend on us.

Government regulation impacts key aspects of our business. We are subject to regulations that affect the payments industry in the markets we operate.

Payments Regulation. Various laws and regulations govern the payments industry in the U.S. and internationally. In the U.S., PayPal, Inc. holds licenses to operate as a money transmitter (or its equivalent), which, among other things, subjects PayPal, Inc. to reporting requirements, bonding requirements, limitations on the investment of customer funds, and inspection by state regulatory agencies. Outside the U.S., we provide similar services customized for various countries and foreign jurisdictions through our foreign subsidiaries. The activities of those non-U.S. entities are, or may be, supervised by a financial regulatory authority in the jurisdictions in which they operate. Among other regulatory authorities, the Luxembourg Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (the “CSSF”), the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Reserve Bank of India, and the Central Bank of Russia have asserted jurisdiction over some or all of our activities in their respective jurisdictions. This list is not exhaustive, and there are numerous other regulatory agencies that have or may assert jurisdiction over our activities. The laws and regulations applicable to the payments industry in any given jurisdiction are subject to interpretation and change.

Banking Agency Supervision. We serve our customers in the European Union (“EU”) through PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. et Cie, SCA, a wholly-owned subsidiary that is licensed and subject to regulation as a bank in Luxembourg by the CSSF. Consequently, we must comply with rules and regulations of the European banking industry, including those related to capitalization, funds management, corporate governance, anti-money laundering, disclosure, reporting, and inspection. We also are, or may be, subject to banking-related regulations in other countries now or in the future related to our role in the financial industry. In addition, based on our relationships with our partner financial institutions, we are, or may be, subject to indirect regulation and examination by these financial institutions’ regulators.

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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB”) has significant authority to regulate consumer financial products in the U.S., including consumer credit, deposit, payment, and similar products. As a large market participant of remittance transfers, the CFPB has direct supervisory authority over our business. The CFPB and other similar regulatory agencies in other jurisdictions may have broad consumer protection mandates that could result in the promulgation and interpretation of rules and regulations that may affect our business.

Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing. PayPal is subject to anti-money laundering (“AML”) laws and regulations in the U.S. and other jurisdictions, as well as laws designed to prevent the use of the financial systems to facilitate terrorist activities. Our AML program is designed to prevent our payment network from being used to facilitate money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit activities, or to do business in countries or with persons and entities included on designated country or person lists promulgated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls (“OFAC”) and equivalent authorities in other countries. Our AML and sanctions compliance programs, overseen by our AML/Bank Secrecy Act Officer, is composed of policies, procedures and internal controls, and is designed to address these legal and regulatory requirements and assist in managing money laundering and terrorist financing risks.

Interchange Fees. Interchange fees associated with four-party payments systems are being reviewed or challenged in various jurisdictions. For example, in the EU, the Multilateral Interchange Fee (“MIF”) Regulation caps credit and debit interchange fees for card payments and provides for business rules to be complied with by any company dealing with card transactions, including PayPal. As a result, the fees that we collect in certain jurisdictions may become the subject of regulatory challenge.

Data Protection and Information Security. Aspects of our operations or business are subject to privacy and data protection regulation in the U.S., the EU, Asia Pacific, and elsewhere. For example, the EU adopted a comprehensive General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), which came into effect in May 2018, as supplemented by any national laws (such as in the U.K., the Data Protection Act 2018) and further implemented through binding guidance from the European Data Protection Board,and expanded the scope of the EU data protection law to foreign companies processing personal data of European Economic Area (“EEA”) individuals, imposed a stricter data protection compliance regime, and included new data subject rights (e.g., the right to erasure, commonly known as the “right to be forgotten”). In the U.S., we are subject to privacy information safeguarding requirements under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that require the maintenance of a written, comprehensive information security program and in Europe, the operations of our Luxembourg bank are subject to confidentiality and information safeguarding requirements under the Luxembourg Banking Act, among other laws. Regulatory authorities around the world are considering numerous legislative and regulatory proposals concerning privacy and data protection that may contain additional privacy and data protection obligations than exist today. In addition, the interpretation and application of these privacy and data protection laws in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere are often uncertain and in a state of flux.

Anti-Corruption. PayPal is subject to applicable anti-corruption laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act, and similar anti-corruption laws in the jurisdictions in which we operate. Anti-corruption laws generally prohibit offering, promising, giving, accepting, or authorizing others to provide anything of value, either directly or indirectly, to or from a government official or private party in order to influence official action or otherwise gain an unfair business advantage, such as to obtain or retain business. We have implemented policies, procedures, and internal controls that are designed to comply with these laws and regulations.

Additional Regulatory Developments. Various regulatory agencies continue to examine a wide variety of issues, including virtual currencies, identity theft, account management guidelines, privacy, disclosure rules, cybersecurity, and marketing that may impact PayPal's business.

For an additional discussion on governmental regulation affecting our business, please see the risk factors related to regulation of our payments business and regulation in the areas of consumer privacy, data use, and/or security in “Item 1A. Risk Factorsunder the caption “Risk Factors That May Affect Our Business, Results of Operations and Financial Condition” and “Item 3. Legal Proceedings” included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Seasonality

The Company does not experience meaningful seasonality with respect to net revenues. No individual quarter in 2018, 2017 or 2016 accounted for more than 30% of annual net revenue.


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Employees

As of December 31, 2018, we employed approximately 21,800 people globally, of whom approximately 11,500 were located in the U.S. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good.

Separation from eBay Inc.

PayPal Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in January 2015 for the purpose of owning and operating eBay’s Payments business in connection with the separation and distribution described below. Prior to the contribution of this business to PayPal Holdings, Inc., which occurred prior to the distribution in July 2015, PayPal Holdings, Inc. had no operations. On July 17, 2015 (the “distribution date”), PayPal became an independent publicly traded company through the pro rata distribution by eBay of 100% of the outstanding common stock of PayPal to eBay stockholders (which we refer to as the “separation” or the “distribution”). Each eBay stockholder of record as of the close of business on July 8, 2015 received one share of PayPal common stock for every share of eBay common stock held on the record date. Approximately 1.2 billion shares of PayPal common stock were distributed on July 17, 2015 to eBay stockholders. PayPal’s common stock began “regular way” trading under the ticker symbol “PYPL” on the NASDAQ Stock Market on July 20, 2015. Prior to the separation, eBay transferred substantially all of the assets and liabilities and operations of eBay’s payments business to PayPal, which was completed in June 2015.

Available Information

The address of our principal executive offices is PayPal Holdings, Inc., 2211 North First Street, San Jose, California 95131. Our website is located at www.paypal.com, and our investor relations website is located at http://investor.paypal-corp.com. From time to time, we may use our investor relations site and other online and social media channels, including our PayPal Stories Blog (https://www.paypal.com/stories/us), Twitter handles (@PayPal and @PayPalNews), LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/company/paypal), Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/PayPalUSA/), YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/paypal), Dan Schulman's LinkedIn profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-schulman/), John Rainey's LinkedIn profile (www.linkedin.com/in/john-rainey-pypl), Bill Ready's LinkedIn profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamready/), and Dan Schulman's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/DanSchulmanPayPal/) to disclose material non-public information and comply with our disclosure obligations under Regulation Fair Disclosure. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports are available free of charge on our investor relations website as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. The content of our websites and information we may post on or provide to online and social media channels, including those mentioned above, and information that can be accessed through our websites or these online and social media channels is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our websites or these online and social media channels are intended to be inactive textual references only.

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

The following discussion is divided into three sections. The first section, which begins immediately following this paragraph, discusses some of the risks that may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The second section, captioned “Risks Related to Our Separation from eBay” discusses some of the risks relating to our separation from eBay in July 2015 into an independent publicly traded company. The third section, captioned “Risks Related to Our Common Stock,” discusses some of the risks relating to an investment in our Common Stock. You should carefully review all of these sections in addition to the other information appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes, for important information regarding risks and uncertainties that affect us. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and future prospects could be materially and adversely affected.


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Risk Factors That May Affect Our Business, Results of Operations, and Financial Condition

We face substantial and increasingly intense competition worldwide in the global payments industry.

The global payments industry is highly competitive, rapidly changing, highly innovative, and increasingly subject to regulatory scrutiny. We compete against a wide range of businesses, including businesses that are larger than we are, have a more dominant and secure position, or offer other products and services to consumers and merchants that we do not offer, as well as smaller companies that may be able to respond more quickly to regulatory and technological changes. Many of the areas in which we compete evolve rapidly with changing and disruptive technologies, shifting user needs, and frequent introductions of new products and services. Competition may also intensify as businesses enter into business combinations and alliances, and established companies in other segments expand to become competitive with different aspects of our business.

We compete primarily on the basis of the following:

ability to attract, retain, and engage both merchants and consumers with our two-sided platform;
ability to demonstrate to merchants that they may achieve incremental sales by using and offering our services to consumers;
consumer confidence in the safety and security of transactions on our Payments Platform, including the ability for consumers to use our products and services without sharing their financial information with the merchant or any other party they are paying;
simplicity and transparency of our fee structure;
ability to develop products and services across multiple commerce channels, including mobile payments, credit products, and payments at the retail point of sale;
trust in our dispute resolution and buyer and seller protection programs;
customer service experience;
brand recognition and preference;
website, mobile platform and application onboarding, ease-of-use, speed, availability, and dependability;
the technology and payment agnostic nature of our Payments Platform;
system reliability and data security;
ability to assist merchants in complying with payments-related laws and regulations ;
ease and quality of integration into third-party mobile applications and operating systems; and
quality of developer tools, such as our application programming interfaces and software development kits.
 
We compete against a wide range of businesses with varying roles in all forms of payments, including:

paper-based transactions (principally cash and checks);
providers of traditional payment methods, particularly credit and debit cards and Automated Clearing House transactions (in particular, well-established banks);
payment networks which facilitate payments for credit card users;
providers of “digital wallets” which offer customers the ability to pay online and/or in-store through a variety of payment methods, including with mobile applications, through contactless payments, and with a variety of payment cards;
providers of mobile payments solutions that use tokenized card data approaches and contactless payments (e.g., near field communication (“NFC”) or host card emulation functionality) to eliminate the need to swipe or insert a card or enter a personal identification number or password;
payment-card processors that offer their services to merchants, including for “card on file” payments where the merchant invites the consumer to select a payment method for their first transaction and to use the same payment method for subsequent transactions;
providers of “person-to-person” payments that facilitate individuals sending money with an email address or mobile phone number;
merchants and merchant associations providing proprietary payment networks to facilitate payments within their own retail network;
money remitters;
providers of card readers for mobile devices and of other point-of-sale and multi-channel technologies; and
providers of virtual currencies and distributed ledger technologies.

We often partner with many of these businesses and we consider the ability to continue establishing these partnerships as important to our business. Competition for relationships with these partners is intense and there can be no assurance that we will be able to continue to establish, grow, or maintain these partner relationships.


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We also face competition and potential competition from:

service providers that provide online merchants the ability to offer their customers the option of paying for purchases from their bank account or paying on credit;
issuers of stored value products targeted at online payments;
other global online and mobile payment-services providers;
services targeting users of social networks and online gaming, including those offering social commerce and peer-to-peer payments;
payment services enabling banking customers to send and receive payments through their bank account, including through immediate or real-time payments systems;
ecommerce services that provide special offers linked to a specific payment provider;
services that help merchants accept and manage virtual currencies; and
electronic funds transfer services as a method of payment for both online and offline transactions.

Some of these competitors have larger customer bases, volume, scale, resources, and market share than we do, which may provide them significant competitive advantages. Some of our competitors may also be subject to less burdensome licensing, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and other regulatory requirements. They may devote greater resources to the development, promotion, and sale of products and services, and they may offer lower prices or more effectively introduce their own innovative programs, products, and services that adversely impact our growth.

If we are not able to differentiate our products and services from those of our competitors, drive value for our customers, or effectively align our resources with our goals and objectives, we may not be able to compete effectively in the market.

Substantially all of our net revenues each quarter come primarily from transactions involving payments during that quarter, which may result in significant fluctuations in our operating results that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows, as well as the trading price of our common stock.

Substantially all of our net revenues each quarter come primarily from transactions involving payments during that quarter. As a result, our operating and financial results have varied on a quarterly basis during our operating history, and may continue to fluctuate significantly as a result of a variety of factors, including as a result of the risks set forth in this “Risk Factors” section. It is difficult for us to forecast accurately the level or source of our revenues or earnings. In view of the rapidly evolving nature of our business, period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful, and you should not rely upon them as an indication of future performance. Due to the inherent difficulty in forecasting revenues, it is also difficult to forecast expenses as a percentage of net revenues. Quarterly and annual expenses as a percentage of net revenues reflected in our financial statements may be significantly different from historical or projected rates. Our operating results in one or more future quarters may fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors. The trading price of our common stock may decline significantly as a result of the factors described in this paragraph.

Global and regional economic conditions could harm our business.

Our operations and performance depend significantly on global and regional economic conditions. Uncertainty about global and regional economic events and conditions may result in consumers and businesses postponing or lowering spending in response to, among other factors:

tighter credit,
higher unemployment,
consumer debt levels or reduced consumer confidence.
financial market volatility,
fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates,
changes and uncertainties related to government fiscal and tax policies, including increased duties, tariffs, or other restrictions,
the inability of the U.S. Congress to enact a budget in a fiscal year, another sequestration, and/or another shutdown of the U.S. government,
government austerity programs, and
other negative financial news or macroeconomic developments.


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These and other global and regional economic events and conditions, including Brexit, could have a material adverse impact on the demand for our products and services, including a reduction in the volume and size of transactions on our Payments Platform. In addition, any financial turmoil affecting the banking system or financial markets could cause additional consolidation of the financial services industry, significant financial service institution failures, new or incremental tightening in the credit markets, low liquidity, and extreme volatility or distress in the fixed income, credit, currency, and equity markets, which could have a material adverse impact on our business. See also the risk factor captioned, “The United Kingdom's departure from the EU could adversely affect us.”

If we cannot keep pace with rapid technological developments to provide new and innovative products and services, the use of our products and services and, consequently, our revenues could decline.

Rapid, significant, and disruptive technological changes impact the industries in which we operate, including developments in payment card tokenization, cryptocurrencies, mobile, social commerce (i.e., ecommerce through social networks), authentication, virtual currencies (including distributed ledger and blockchain technologies), and NFC and other proximity payment technology, such as contactless payments. As a result, we expect new services and technologies to continue to emerge and evolve, and we cannot predict the effects of technological changes on our business. In addition to our own initiatives and innovations, we rely in part on third parties, including some of our competitors, for the development of and access to new or evolving technologies. These third parties may restrict or prevent our access to, or utilization of, those technologies, as well as their platforms or products.  In addition, we may not be able to accurately predict which technological developments or innovations will become widely adopted and how those technologies may be regulated. We expect that new services and technologies applicable to the industries in which we operate will continue to emerge and may be superior to, or render obsolete, the technologies we currently use in our products and services. Developing and incorporating new technologies into our products and services may require substantial expenditures, take considerable time, and ultimately may not be successful. In addition, our ability to adopt new products and services and to develop new technologies may be inhibited by industry-wide standards, payments networks, changes to laws and regulations, resistance to change from consumers or merchants, third-party intellectual property rights, or other factors. Our success will depend on our ability to develop and incorporate new technologies and adapt to technological changes and evolving industry standards; if we are unable to do so in a timely or cost-effective manner, our business could be harmed.

Cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities could result in serious harm to our reputation, business, and financial condition.

Our business involves the collection, storage, processing, and transmission of customers’ personal data, including financial information and information about how they interact with our Payments Platform. In addition, a significant number of our customers authorize us to bill their payment cards or bank accounts directly for all transaction and other fees charged by us. We have built our reputation on the premise that our Payments Platform offers customers a more secure way to make payments. An increasing number of organizations, including large merchants, businesses, technology companies, and financial institutions, as well as government institutions, have disclosed breaches of their information security systems, some of which have involved sophisticated and highly targeted attacks, including on their websites, mobile applications, and infrastructure.

The techniques used to obtain unauthorized, improper, or illegal access to our systems, our data or customers' data, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems are constantly evolving and have become increasingly complex and sophisticated, may be difficult to detect quickly, and often are not recognized or detected until after they have been launched against a target. We expect that unauthorized parties will continue to attempt to gain access to our systems or facilities through various means, including hacking into our systems or facilities or those of our customers, partners, or vendors, or attempting to fraudulently induce (for example, through spear phishing attacks) our employees, customers, partners, vendors, or other users of our systems into disclosing user names, passwords, payment card information, or other sensitive information, which may in turn be used to access our information technology systems. Certain efforts may be state-sponsored and supported by significant financial and technological resources, making them even more sophisticated and difficult to detect. Numerous and evolving cybersecurity threats, including advanced and persisting cyberattacks, phishing and social engineering schemes, could compromise the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of the data in our systems. We believe that PayPal is a particularly attractive target for such breaches and attacks due to our name and brand recognition and the widespread adoption and use of our products and services. Although we have developed systems and processes designed to protect our data and customer data and to prevent data loss and other security breaches, and expect to continue to expend significant resources to bolster these protections, there can be no assurance that these security measures provide absolute security.

Our information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to cyberattacks or security breaches, and third parties may be able to access our customers’ personal or proprietary information and payment card data that are stored on or accessible through those systems. We have experienced from time to time, and may experience in the future, breaches of our security measures due to human error, malfeasance, system errors or vulnerabilities, or other irregularities. Actual or perceived breaches of our security could, among other things:

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interrupt our operations,
result in our systems or services being unavailable,
result in improper disclosure of data,
materially harm our reputation and brands,
result in significant regulatory scrutiny and legal and financial exposure,
cause us to incur significant remediation costs,
lead to loss of customer confidence in, or decreased use of, our products and services,
divert the attention of management from the operation of our business,
result in significant compensation or contractual penalties from us to our customers and their business partners as a result of losses to them or claims by them, and
adversely affect our business and results of operations.

In addition, any cyberattacks or data security breaches affecting companies that we acquire or our customers, partners, or vendors (including data center and cloud computing providers) could have similar negative effects. See Note 4—“Business Combinations, Note 5—“Goodwill and Intangible Assets and Note 13—“Commitments and Contingencies to our consolidated financial statements for disclosure relating to the suspension of operations of TIO Networks (“TIO) (which we acquired in July 2017) as part of an investigation of security vulnerability of the TIO platform. Actual or perceived vulnerabilities or data breaches have led and may lead to claims against us.

In addition, under payment card rules and our contracts with our card processors, if there is a breach of payment card information that we store, or that is stored by our direct payment card processing vendors, we could be liable to the payment card issuing banks for their cost of issuing new cards and related expenses. We also expect to expend significant additional resources to protect against security or privacy breaches, and may be required to redress problems caused by breaches. Financial services regulators in various jurisdictions, including the U.S. and the EU, have implemented authentication requirements for banks and payment processors intended to reduce online fraud, which could impose significant costs, require us to change our business practices, make it more difficult for new customers to join PayPal, and reduce the ease of use of our products, which could harm our business. While we maintain insurance policies, they may not be adequate to reimburse us for losses caused by security breaches.

Systems failures and resulting interruptions in the availability of our websites, applications, products, or services could harm our business.

Our systems and those of our services providers and partners may experience service interruptions or degradation because of hardware and software defects or malfunctions, distributed denial-of-service and other cyberattacks, human error, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, and other natural disasters, power losses, disruptions in telecommunications services, fraud, military or political conflicts, terrorist attacks, computer viruses or other malware, or other events. We have experienced from time to time, and may experience in the future, disruptions in our systems due to break-ins, sabotage, and intentional acts of vandalism. Some of our systems are not fully redundant, and our disaster recovery planning may not be sufficient for all eventualities. In addition, as a provider of payments solutions, we are subject to heightened scrutiny by regulators that may require specific business continuity, resiliency and disaster recovery plans, and more rigorous testing of such plans, which may be costly and time-consuming and may divert our resources from other business priorities.

We have experienced and expect to continue to experience system failures, denial-of-service attacks, and other events or conditions from time to time that interrupt the availability, or reduce or adversely affect the speed or functionality of our products and services. These events have resulted and likely will result in loss of revenue. A prolonged interruption in the availability or reduction in the availability, speed, or functionality of our products and services could materially harm our business. Frequent or persistent interruptions in our services could cause current or potential customers to believe that our systems are unreliable, leading them to switch to our competitors or to avoid or reduce the use of our products and services, and could permanently harm our reputation and brands. Moreover, if any system failure or similar event results in damages to our customers or their business partners, these customers or partners could seek significant compensation or contractual penalties from us for their losses, and those claims, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time-consuming and costly for us to address, and could have other consequences described in this “Risk Factors” section under the caption “Cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities could result in serious harm to our reputation, business, results of operation, and financial condition.


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Our Payments Platform has experienced and may in the future experience intermittent unavailability. The full-time availability and expeditious delivery of our products and services is critical to our goal of gaining widespread acceptance among consumers and merchants for digital payments. We have undertaken certain system upgrades and re-platforming efforts designed to improve our reliability and speed. These efforts are costly and time-consuming, involve significant technical risk and may divert our resources from new features and products, and there can be no guarantee that these efforts will succeed. Because we are a regulated financial institution in certain jurisdictions, frequent or persistent site interruptions could lead to regulatory scrutiny, significant fines and penalties, and mandatory and costly changes to our business practices, and ultimately could cause us to lose existing licenses that we need to operate or prevent or delay us from obtaining additional licenses that may be required for our business.

We also rely on facilities, components, and services supplied by third parties, including data center facilities and cloud storage services. If these third parties cease to provide the facilities or services, experience operational interference or disruptions, breach their agreements with us, fail to perform their obligations and meet our expectations, or experience a cybersecurity incident, our operations could be disrupted or otherwise negatively affected, which could result in customer dissatisfaction and damage to our reputation and brands, and materially and adversely affect our business. We do not carry business interruption insurance sufficient to compensate us for all losses that may result from interruptions in our service as a result of systems failures and similar events.

In addition, we are continually improving and upgrading our information systems and technologies. Implementation of new systems and technologies is complex, expensive, and time-consuming. If we fail to timely and successfully implement new information systems and technologies, or improvements or upgrades to existing information systems and technologies, or if such systems and technologies do not operate as intended, this could have an adverse impact on our business, internal controls (including internal controls over financial reporting), results of operations, and financial condition.

Changes to payment card networks or bank fees, rules, or practices could harm our business.

We rely on banks or other payment processors to process transactions and pay fees for their services. From time to time, payment card networks have increased, and may continue to increase in the future, the interchange fees and assessments that they charge for each transaction that accesses their networks. Payment card networks have imposed, and may impose in the future, special fees or assessments for transactions that are executed through a “digital wallet” such as PayPal’s, which could particularly impact us and significantly increase our costs. Our payment card processors may have the right to pass any increases in interchange fees and assessments on to us as well as increase their own fees for processing, which could increase our operating costs and reduce our operating income. We have entered into strategic partnerships with Visa and Mastercard and other credit card networks to further expand our relationships in a way that will make it easier for merchants to accept and consumers to choose to pay with their respective credit and debit cards. During the terms of these agreements, Visa and Mastercard have each agreed to not enact or impose any fees or rules that solely target PayPal. Upon termination of the agreements, PayPal could become subject to special digital wallet fees or other special assessments.

In addition, in some jurisdictions, governmental regulations have required payment card networks to reduce interchange fees. Any material change in credit or debit card interchange rates in the U.S. or other markets, including as a result of changes in interchange fee limitations, could adversely affect our competitive position against traditional credit and debit card service providers and our business.

We are required to comply with payment card network operating rules, including special operating rules for payment service providers to merchants. We have agreed to reimburse our processors for any fines they are assessed by payment card networks as a result of any rule violations by us or our merchants. We may also be directly liable to the payment card networks for rule violations. The payment card networks set and interpret the card operating rules and have alleged from time to time that various aspects of our business model violate these operating rules. If such allegations are not resolved favorably, they may result in significant fines and penalties or require changes in our business practices that may be costly. The payment card networks could adopt new operating rules or interpret or re-interpret existing rules that we or our processors might find difficult or even impossible to follow, or costly to implement. As a result, we could lose our ability to give consumers the option of using payment cards to fund their payments or the choice of currency in which they would like their payment card to be charged. If we are unable to accept payment cards or are limited in our ability to do so, our business would be adversely affected.


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We and our payment card processors have implemented specific business processes for merchants to comply with payment card network operating rules for providing services to merchants. Any failure to comply with these rules could result in fines. We are also subject to fines from payment card networks if we fail to detect that merchants are engaging in activities that are illegal or that are considered “high risk,” including the sale of certain types of digital content. For “high risk” merchants, we must either prevent such merchants from using PayPal services or register such merchants with the payment card networks and conduct additional monitoring with respect to such merchants. Although the amount of these fines has not been material to date, additional fines in the future could become significant and could result in a termination of our ability to accept payment cards or require changes in our process for registering new customers, which would adversely affect our business. Payment card network rules may also increase the cost of, impose restrictions on, or otherwise negatively impact the development of, our retail point-of-sale solutions, which may negatively impact their deployment and adoption.

Failure to deal effectively with fraud, fictitious transactions, bad transactions, and negative customer experiences would increase our loss rate and harm our business, and could severely diminish merchant and consumer confidence in and use of our services.

Our operations process a significant volume and dollar value of transactions on a daily basis. In the event that merchants do not fulfill their obligations to consumers or a merchant's goods or services do not match the merchant’s description, we may incur substantial losses as a result of claims from consumers. We seek to recover such losses from the merchant, but may not be able to recover in full if the merchant is unwilling or unable to pay. In addition, in the event of the bankruptcy or other business interruption of a merchant that sells goods or services in advance of the date of their delivery or use (e.g., airline, cruise or concert tickets, custom-made goods, and subscriptions), we could be liable to the buyers of such goods or services, either through our buyer protection program or through chargebacks on payment cards used by customers to fund their payment. While we have established allowances for transaction losses based on assumptions and estimates that we believe are reasonable to cover such losses incurred as of the reporting date, these reserves may be insufficient.

We also incur substantial losses from claims that the consumer did not authorize the purchase, from customer fraud, from erroneous transactions, and as a result of customers who have closed bank accounts or have insufficient funds in their bank accounts to satisfy payments. In addition, if losses incurred by us related to payment card transactions become excessive, they could potentially result in our losing the right to accept payment cards for payment, which would harm our business. We have taken measures to detect and reduce the risk of fraud, but these measures need to be continually improved and may not be effective against fraud, particularly new and continually evolving forms of fraud or in connection with new product offerings. If these measures do not succeed, our business could be harmed.

We are exposed to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates that could materially and adversely affect our financial results.

We have significant operations internationally that are denominated in foreign currencies, including the British Pound, Euro, Australian Dollar, and Canadian Dollar, which subject us to foreign currency risk. The strengthening or weakening of the U.S. dollar versus the British Pound, Euro, Australian Dollar, and Canadian Dollar impacts the translation of our net revenues generated in these foreign currencies into the U.S. dollar. In connection with providing our services in multiple currencies, we may face financial exposure if we incorrectly set our foreign exchange rates or as a result of fluctuations in foreign exchange rates between the times that we set them. Given that we also hold some corporate and customer funds in non-U.S. currencies, our financial results are affected by the remeasurement of these non-U.S. currencies into U.S. dollars. We also have foreign exchange risk on our assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the functional currency of our subsidiaries. While we regularly enter into transactions to hedge foreign currency risk for portions of our foreign currency translation and balance sheet exposure, it is impossible to predict or eliminate the effects of this exposure.

Any factors that reduce cross-border trade or make such trade more difficult could harm our business.

Cross-border trade (i.e., transactions where the merchant and consumer are in different countries) is an important source of our revenue and profits. Cross-border transactions generally provide higher revenues and operating income than similar transactions that take place within a single country or market. Cross-border trade also represents our primary (and in some cases, our only) presence in certain important markets.


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Cross-border trade is subject to, and may be negatively impacted by, foreign exchange rate fluctuations. In addition, the interpretation and application of laws of multiple jurisdictions (e.g., the jurisdiction of the merchant and of the consumer) are often extremely complicated in the context of cross-border trade. Changes to or the interpretation and/or application of laws and regulations applicable to cross-border trade could impose additional requirements and restrictions, impose conflicting obligations, and increase the costs associated with cross-border trade. Any factors that increase the costs of cross-border trade for us or our customers or that restrict, delay, or make cross-border trade more difficult or impractical, such as trade policy or higher tariffs, could negatively impact our revenues and profits and harm our business. See also the risk factor captioned, “Global and regional economic conditions could harm our business.”

Changes in how consumers fund their PayPal transactions could harm our business.

We pay transaction fees when consumers fund payment transactions using credit cards, lower fees when consumers fund payments with debit cards, and nominal fees when consumers fund payment transactions by electronic transfer of funds from bank accounts, or from an existing PayPal account balance or through our PayPal branded consumer credit products. Our financial success is sensitive to changes in the rate at which our consumers fund payments using credit and debit cards (collectively, “payment cards”), which can significantly increase our costs. Although we provide consumers with the opportunity to use their existing PayPal account balance to fund payment transactions, some of our consumers may prefer to use payment cards, especially if these payment cards offer features and benefits that are not provided as part of their PayPal accounts. An increase in the portion of our payment volume funded using payment cards or in fees associated with our funding mix, or other events or developments that make it more difficult or costly for us to fund transactions with lower-cost funding options, could materially and adversely affect our financial performance and significantly harm our business.

We have entered into strategic partnerships with major payment card networks and/or issuing banks to promote greater consumer choice and make it easier for merchants to accept and consumers to pay with these partners’ credit and/or debt cards and to allow us to gain access to these partners’ tokenization services for in-store point of sale PayPal transactions. These arrangements may have an uncertain impact on our business. While we anticipate that these and similar strategic partnerships we may enter into in the future will result in an increase in the number of transactions and transaction volume that we process, we also anticipate that a greater percentage of customer transactions will be executed using a payment card, which would likely increase the transaction costs associated with our funding mix, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and profitability.

The United Kingdom’s departure from the EU could adversely affect us.

The United Kingdom (“U.K.”) held a referendum in June 2016 in which a majority of voters approved an exit from the European Union (“EU”) (commonly referred to as “Brexit”). In March 2017, the U.K. government initiated the exit process under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, which commenced a two-year period expiring on March 29, 2019, after which time the U.K. is expected to leave the EU in the absence of any effective extension to the Article 50 period. Political negotiations are underway; however, there is a significant lack of clarity over the terms of the U.K.'s exit from the EU and the terms of the U.K.'s future relationship with the EU. The U.K.'s financial service regulators are implementing Temporary Permission Regimes that are expected to be put in place by the U.K.'s government to support European Economic Area (“EEA”) financial services firms in continuing to conduct business in the U.K. should the U.K. exit the EU without an agreement.

Brexit could adversely affect U.K., regional (including European), and worldwide economic and market conditions and could contribute to instability in global financial and foreign exchange markets, including volatility in the value of the British Pound and Euro, which in turn could adversely affect us or our customers and companies with which we do business, particularly in the U.K. Brexit could lead to greater restrictions on the supply and availability of goods and services between the U.K and the EEA region, with the potential inability of U.K. companies to fulfill orders leading in turn to a risk of increased merchant defaults and buyer protection claims. Brexit could also trigger a general deterioration in credit conditions, a downturn in consumer sentiment and overall negative economic growth. Any of these scenarios could have an adverse effect on our business or our customers.

In addition, Brexit could lead to legal uncertainty and increased complexity for financial services firms as national laws and regulations in the U.K. start to diverge from EU laws and regulations. In particular, depending on the terms of Brexit, we may face new regulatory costs and challenges, including the following:

if we are unable to utilize appropriate authorizations and regulator permissions, our EU operations could lose their ability to offer services on a cross-border basis into the U.K. market and for our U.K. based operations to offer services on a cross-border basis in the EEA markets. For example, our ability to work primarily with the Luxembourg regulator as the lead authority for various aspects of our U.K. operations may also be impacted;

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we could be required to obtain additional regulatory permissions to operate in the U.K. market, adding costs and potential inconsistency to our business (and, depending on the capacity of the U.K. authorities, the criteria for obtaining permission, and any possible transitional arrangements, there is a risk that our business in the U.K. could be materially affected or disrupted);
we could be required to comply with regulatory requirements in the U.K. that are in addition to, or inconsistent with, the regulatory requirements of the EU, leading to increased complexity and costs for our EU and UK operations; and
our ability to attract and retain the necessary human resources in appropriate locations to support the U.K. business and the EU business of PayPal could be adversely impacted.

These and other factors related to Brexit could, individually or in the aggregate, have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Our business is subject to extensive government regulation and oversight. Our failure to comply with extensive, complex, overlapping, and frequently changing rules, regulations, and legal interpretations could materially harm our business.

Our business is subject to laws, rules, regulations, policies, and legal interpretations in the markets in which we operate, including, but not limited to, those governing:

banking,
credit,
deposit taking,
cross-border and domestic money transmission,
prepaid access,
foreign exchange,
privacy,
data protection,
cybersecurity,
banking secrecy,
payment services (including payment processing and settlement services),
consumer protection,
economic and trade sanctions,
anti-money laundering, and
counter-terrorist financing.

Our success and increased visibility may result in increased regulatory oversight and enforcement and more restrictive rules and regulations that apply to our business.

As we expand and localize our international activities, we have become increasingly obligated to comply with the laws of the countries or markets in which we operate. In addition, because our services are accessible worldwide and we facilitate sales of goods and provide services to customers worldwide, one or more jurisdictions may claim that we or our customers are required to comply with their laws. Laws regulating the internet, mobile, and related technologies outside of the U.S. often impose different, more specific, or even conflicting obligations on us, as well as broader liability. For example, certain transactions that may be permissible in a local jurisdiction may be prohibited by regulations of U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) or U.S. anti-money laundering or counter-terrorist financing regulations.

Any failure or perceived failure to comply with existing or new laws, regulations, or orders of any governmental authority (including changes to or expansion of the interpretation of those laws, regulations, or orders), including those discussed in this risk factor, may subject us to significant fines, penalties, criminal and civil lawsuits, forfeiture of significant assets, and enforcement actions in one or more jurisdictions, result in additional compliance and licensure requirements, increase regulatory scrutiny of our business, restrict our operations, and force us to change our business practices, make product or operational changes, or delay planned product launches or improvements. Any of the foregoing could, individually or in the aggregate, harm our reputation, damage our brands and business, and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. The complexity of U.S. federal and state regulatory and enforcement regimes, coupled with the global scope of our operations and the evolving global regulatory environment, could result in a single event giving rise to a large number of overlapping investigations and legal and regulatory proceedings by multiple government authorities in different jurisdictions. We have implemented policies and procedures designed to help ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, but there can be no assurance that our employees, contractors, or agents will not violate such laws and regulations.


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Payments Regulation

In the U.S., PayPal, Inc. has obtained licenses to operate as a money transmitter (or its equivalent) in the states where such licenses are required, as well as in the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. These licenses include not only the PayPal branded products and services in these states, but also our Braintree, Venmo, and Xoom products and services. We may also maintain such licenses for certain companies that we have recently acquired, such as Hyperwallet. As a licensed money transmitter, PayPal is subject to restrictions with respect to the investment of customer funds, reporting requirements, bonding requirements, and inspection by state regulatory agencies. Accordingly, if we violate these laws or regulations, we could be subject to liability and/or additional restrictions, forced to cease doing business with residents of certain states, forced to change our business practices, or required to obtain additional licenses or regulatory approvals, which could impose substantial costs.

While we currently allow our customers with payment cards to send payments from approximately 200 markets, we allow customers in only approximately half of those markets (including the U.S.) to also receive payments, in some cases with significant restrictions on the manner in which customers can withdraw funds. These limitations may adversely affect our ability to grow our business in these markets.

We principally provide our services to customers in the EU through PayPal (Europe) S.a.r.l. et Cie., SCA (“PayPal (Europe)”), our wholly-owned subsidiary that is licensed and subject to regulation as a credit institution in Luxembourg. Accordingly, PayPal (Europe) is subject to significant fines or other enforcement action if it violates the disclosure, reporting, anti-money laundering, capitalization, fund management, corporate governance, privacy, data protection, information security, banking secrecy, taxation, sanctions, or other requirements imposed on Luxembourg banks. In addition, EU laws and regulations are typically subject to different and potentially inconsistent interpretations by the countries that are members of the EU, which can make compliance more costly and operationally difficult to manage. Moreover, the countries that are EU members may each have different and potentially inconsistent domestic regulations implementing European Directives, including the EU Payment Services Directive and the E-Money Directive, which could make compliance more costly and operationally difficult to manage. The Revised Payment Services Directive (“PSD2”) entered into force in January 2016 and is in the process of being implemented into national legislation, with certain requirements effective January 13, 2018. However, a number of EU member states have not yet fully implemented PSD2 into domestic legislation. Luxembourg, which is the home member state of PayPal (Europe), implemented PSD2 on July 28, 2018. The implementation of PSD2 may negatively affect our business. PSD2 seeks to enable new payment models whereby a newly formed category of regulated payment provider would be able to access bank and payment accounts (including PayPal accounts) for the purposes of accessing account information or initiating a payment on behalf of a customer. Such access could subject us to data security and other legal and financial risks and could create new competitive forces and new types of competitors in the European payments market. PSD2 seeks to regulate more online platforms that handle payments for their sellers. PayPal merchants with affected business models which are not licensed, or which do not benefit from exemptions or integrate a compliant marketplaces solution may not be able to offer PayPal products in the future. PSD2 also imposes new standards (coming into force on September 14, 2019) for payment security and strong customer authentication that may make it more difficult and time consuming to carry out a PayPal transaction, which may adversely impact PayPal’s customer value proposition and its European business.

If the business activities of PayPal (Europe) exceed certain thresholds, or if the European Central Bank (“ECB”) so determines, PayPal (Europe) may be deemed a significant supervised entity such that some activity of PayPal (Europe) could become directly regulated by the ECB rather than the Luxembourg regulator (the “CSSF”), as its national supervisor, which could subject us to additional requirements and would likely increase compliance costs.

In many of the other markets outside the U.S. in which we do business, we serve our customers through PayPal Pte. Ltd., our wholly-owned subsidiary based in Singapore. PayPal Pte. Ltd. is supervised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and designated as a holder of a stored value facility, but does not hold a remittance license. As a result, PayPal Pte. Ltd. is not able to offer outbound remittance payments (including donations to charities) from Singapore, and can only offer payments for the purchase of goods and services in Singapore. In many of the markets (other than Singapore) served by PayPal Pte. Ltd., it is unclear and uncertain whether our Singapore-based service is subject only to Singapore law or, if it is subject to the application of local laws, whether such local laws would require a payment processor like us to be licensed as a payments service, bank, financial institution, or otherwise. Payment services legislation currently pending in Singapore may change how PayPal Pte. Ltd is regulated and, if such legislation is passed, our compliance and operating costs will likely increase.

In certain markets outside the U.S. (e.g., Australia), we provide our services to customers through a local subsidiary subject to local regulatory supervision or oversight, which may be the holder of a local payment license, certification, or other authorization. In such markets, we may be subject to significant fines or other enforcement action if we violate applicable reporting, anti-money laundering, capital requirements, privacy, corporation governance, risk management, or any other applicable requirements.


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We have been, and expect to continue to be, required to apply for various licenses, certifications, and regulatory approvals in a number of the jurisdictions where we provide our services, including due to changes in applicable laws and regulations or the interpretation of such laws and regulations. There can be no assurance that we will be able to (or decide to) obtain any such licenses, certifications, and approvals. In addition, there are substantial costs and potential product changes involved in maintaining and renewing such licenses, certifications, and approvals, and we could be subject to fines or other enforcement action if we are found to violate disclosure, reporting, anti-money laundering, capitalization, corporate governance, or other requirements of such licenses. These factors could impose substantial additional costs, involve considerable delay to the development or provision of our products or services, require significant and costly operational changes, or prevent us from providing our products or services in a given market.

In many countries, it may not be clear whether we are required to be licensed as a payment services provider, bank, financial institution, or otherwise. In such markets, we may rely on local banks to process payments and conduct foreign exchange transactions in local currency. Local regulators may use their power to slow or halt payments to local merchants conducted through local banks or otherwise prohibit or impede us from doing business in a jurisdiction. Such regulatory actions or the need to obtain licenses, certifications, or other regulatory approvals could impose substantial costs, involve considerable delay to the provision or development of our services, require significant and costly operational changes, impose restrictions, limitations, or additional requirements on our business, or prevent us from providing any products or services in a given market.

Consumer Protection

We are subject to consumer protection laws and regulations in the countries in which we operate. In the U.S., we are subject to federal and state consumer protection laws and regulations applicable to our activities, including the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (“EFTA”) and Regulation E as implemented by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”). These regulations require us to provide advance disclosure of changes to our services, follow specified error resolution procedures, and reimburse consumers for losses from certain transactions not authorized by the consumer, among other requirements. Additionally, technical violations of consumer protection laws could result in the assessment of actual damages or statutory damages or penalties of up to $1,000 in individual cases or up to $500,000 per violation in any class action and treble damages in some instances; we could also be liable for plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees in such cases. We are subject to, and have paid amounts in settlement of, lawsuits containing allegations that our business violated the EFTA and Regulation E or otherwise advance claims for relief relating to our business practices (e.g., that we improperly held consumer funds or otherwise improperly limited consumer accounts).

In October 2016, the CFPB issued a final rule on prepaid accounts. The rule’s definition of prepaid account includes certain accounts that are capable of being loaded with funds and whose primary function is to conduct transactions with multiple, unaffiliated merchants, at ATMs and/or for person-to-person transfers, including certain digital wallets. The rule’s requirements include: the disclosure of fees and other information to the consumer prior to the creation of a prepaid account; the extension of Regulation E liability limits and error-resolution requirements to all prepaid accounts; the application of Regulation Z credit card requirements to prepaid accounts with overdraft and credit features; and the submission of prepaid account agreements to the CFPB and their publication to the general public. In April 2017, the CFPB delayed the effective date of the final rule on prepaid accounts to April 1, 2018, and indicated that it would review, among other issues, the linking of credit cards to digital wallets that are capable of storing funds. In June 2017, the CFPB released proposed changes to its final rule, and in January 2018, the CFPB issued its final rule, modifying some aspects of the rule, with an overall effective date of April 1, 2019. We are in the process of implementing certain changes to comply with the final rule. We expect that such implementation will require us to make substantial changes to the design of certain U.S. consumer accounts and their operability, which could lead to customer dissatisfaction, require us to reallocate resources, and increase our costs, which could negatively affect our business.

In May 2015, we entered into a Stipulated Final Judgment and Consent Order (“Consent Order”) with the CFPB in which we settled regulatory claims arising from PayPal Credit practices between 2011 and 2015. The Consent Order included obligations on PayPal to pay $15 million in redress to consumers and a $10 million civil monetary penalty, and required PayPal to make various changes to PayPal Credit disclosures and related business practices. We continue to cooperate and engage with the CFPB and work to ensure compliance with the Consent Order, which may result in us incurring additional costs.

PayPal (Europe) principally offers its services in EU countries through a “passport” notification process through the Luxembourg regulator to regulators in other EU member states pursuant to EU regulations. Regulators in these countries could notify PayPal (Europe) of local consumer protection laws that apply to its business, in addition to Luxembourg consumer protection law, and could also seek to persuade the Luxembourg regulator to order PayPal (Europe) to conduct its or the PayPal group's activities in the local country directly or through a branch office. These or similar actions by these regulators could increase the cost of, or delay, our plans to expand our business in EU countries.


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Economic and Trade Sanctions

We are required to comply with U.S. economic and trade sanctions administered by OFAC and the Council of the European Union, respectively. We have self-reported to OFAC certain transactions that were inadvertently processed but subsequently identified as possible violations of U.S. economic and trade sanctions. In March 2015, we reached a settlement with OFAC regarding possible violations arising from our sanctions compliance practices between 2009 and 2013, prior to the implementation of our real-time transaction scanning program. Subsequently, we have self-reported additional transactions as possible violations, and we have received new subpoenas from OFAC seeking additional information about certain of these transactions. Such self-reported transactions could result in claims or actions against us, including litigation, injunctions, damage awards, fines or penalties, or require us to change our business practices in a manner that could result in a material loss, require significant management time, result in the diversion of significant operational resources, or otherwise harm our business.

Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing

We are subject to various anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing laws and regulations around the world that prohibit, among other things, our involvement in transferring the proceeds of criminal activities. Regulators in the U.S. and other regulators globally continue to increase their scrutiny of compliance with these obligations, which may require us to further revise or expand our compliance program, including the procedures we use to verify the identity of our customers and to monitor international and domestic transactions. Many countries in which we operate also have anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing laws and regulations, and we have been and will continue to be required to make changes to our compliance program in various jurisdictions in response. Regulators regularly re-examine the transaction volume thresholds at which we must obtain and keep applicable records or verify identities of customers and any change in such thresholds could result in greater costs for compliance. In the EU, the implementation of the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive and the regulation on information accompanying transfer of funds (commonly known as the Revised Wire Transfer Regulation) may make compliance more costly and operationally difficult to manage, lead to increased friction for customers, and result in a decrease in business. Penalties for non-compliance with the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive could include fines of up to 10% of PayPal (Europe)’s total annual turnover. On April 19, 2018, the European Parliament adopted the European Commission’s proposal for a Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, containing more stringent provisions in certain areas, which may also increase compliance costs.

Privacy and Protection of User Data

We are subject to a number of laws, rules, directives, and regulations (which we refer to as “privacy laws”) relating to the collection, use, retention, security, processing, and transfer (which we refer to as “process”) of personally identifiable information about our customers and employees (which we refer to as “personal data”) in the countries where we operate. Our business relies on the processing of data in many jurisdictions and the movement of data across national borders. As a result, much of the personal data that we process, especially financial information, is regulated by multiple privacy laws and, in some cases, the privacy laws of multiple jurisdictions. In many cases, these laws apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between or among us, our subsidiaries, and other parties with which we have commercial relationships.

Regulatory scrutiny of privacy, data protection, and the collection, storage, use, and sharing of personal data is increasing around the world. There is uncertainty associated with the legal and regulatory environment relating to privacy and data protection laws, which continue to develop in ways we cannot predict, including with respect to evolving technologies such as cloud computing and blockchain technology.

Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with our privacy policies and communicated to users prior to our collection, use, storage and transfer, and disclosure of their personal data, with applicable industry data protection or security standards, with any applicable regulatory requirements or orders, or with privacy, data protection, information security, or consumer protection-related laws and regulations in one or more jurisdictions could result in proceedings or actions against us by data protection authorities (which we refer to as “supervisory authorities”), governmental entities or others, including class action privacy litigation in certain jurisdictions, would subject us to significant awards, fines, penalties, judgments, and negative publicity arising from any financial or non-financial damages suffered by any individuals. This could, individually or in the aggregate, materially harm our business. Specifically, this would likely require us to change our business practices, and would increase the costs and complexity of compliance. In addition, compliance with inconsistent privacy laws may restrict our ability to provide products and services to our customers.


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PayPal relies on a variety of compliance methods to transfer personal data of EU citizens to the U.S., including reliance on Binding Corporate Rules (“BCRs”) for internal transfers of certain types of personal data and Standard Contractual Clauses (“SCCs”) as approved by the European Commission for transfers to and from third parties. PayPal must also ensure that third parties processing personal data of PayPal’s EU customers and/or employees outside of the EU have compliant transfer mechanisms. In October 2015, the European Court of Justice invalidated U.S.-EU Safe Harbor framework clauses that were previously relied upon by some PayPal vendors to lawfully transfer personal data of EU citizens to U.S. companies, and PayPal entered into SCCs with those third parties who had previously relied on the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor framework. In July 2016, the U.S. and EU authorities agreed on a replacement for Safe Harbor known as “Privacy Shield.” Both the Privacy Shield framework and SCCs are facing legal challenges in the European justice system. To the extent that the Privacy Shield or SCCs are invalidated, PayPal’s ability to process EU personal data with third parties outside of the EU could be jeopardized.

In 2016, the EU adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which became effective in May 2018. The EU data protection regime expands the scope of the EU data protection law to all foreign companies processing personal data of EU residents, imposes a strict data protection compliance regime with severe penalties of up to the greater of 4% of worldwide turnover or €20 million, and includes new rights such as the “portability” of personal data. Although the GDPR applies across the EU without a need for local implementing legislation, each EU member state has the ability to interpret the GDPR opening clauses, which permit region-specific data protection legislation and have the potential to create inconsistencies on a country-by-country basis. Implementation of the GDPR has required us to change our business practices and increased the costs and complexity of compliance.

PayPal also faces additional potential challenges from local data protection agencies (“DPAs”). Because PayPal (Europe) is headquartered in Luxembourg and subject to regulation as a bank in that jurisdiction, we have relied on the “one-stop-shop” concept under which Luxembourg has been our lead data protection regulator in the EU. However, a 2015 European Court of Justice ruling (Weltimmo) affecting companies that do business in the EU potentially could make us subject to the local data protection laws or regulatory enforcement activities of the various EU member states in which we have established legal entities and which apply privacy laws that are different than, and may conflict with, Luxembourg privacy laws.

In addition, because of the large number of text messages, emails, phone calls, and other communications we send or make to our customers for various business purposes, communication-related privacy laws that provide a specified monetary damage award or fine for each violation could result in particularly significant damage awards or fines. For example, under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), in the U.S., plaintiffs may seek actual monetary loss or statutory damages of $500 per violation, whichever is greater, and courts may triple the damage award for willful or knowing violations. We have been, and may continue to be subject to lawsuits (including class-action lawsuits) containing allegations that our business violated the TCPA. These lawsuits seek damages (including statutory damages) and injunctive relief, among other remedies. Given the large number of communications we send to our customers, a determination that there have been violations of the TCPA or other communications-based statutes could expose us to significant damage awards that could, individually or in the aggregate, materially harm our business.

If one or more of our counterparty financial institutions default on their financial or performance obligations to us or fail, we may incur significant losses.

We have significant amounts of cash, cash equivalents, and other investments on deposit or in accounts with banks or other financial institutions in the U.S. and abroad. As part of our currency hedging activities, we enter into transactions involving derivative financial instruments with various financial institutions. Certain banks and financial institutions are also lenders under our credit facilities. We regularly monitor our exposure to counterparty credit risk, and actively manage this exposure to mitigate the associated risk. Despite these efforts, we may be exposed to the risk of default by, or deteriorating operating results or financial condition or failure of, these counterparty financial institutions. The risk of counterparty default, deterioration, or failure may be heightened during economic downturns and periods of uncertainty in the financial markets. If one of our counterparties were to become insolvent or file for bankruptcy, our ability to recover losses incurred as a result of default or to access or recover our assets that are deposited or held in accounts with such counterparty may be limited by the counterparty’s liquidity or the applicable laws governing the insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings. In the event of default or failure of one or more of our counterparties, we could incur significant losses, which could negatively impact our results of operations and financial condition.


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PayPal is not a bank or licensed lender in the U.S. and relies upon third parties to make loans and provide other products critical to our business, which raises additional risks.
As PayPal is neither a chartered financial institution, nor licensed to make loans in any state in the U.S., we rely on third-party chartered financial institutions to provide PayPal branded credit products to our customers in the U.S., including consumer credits products such as PayPal Credit and PayPal branded Mastercard credit cards, and business credit products such as PayPal Working Capital and PayPal Business Loan products. Any termination or interruption in a partner bank’s ability or willingness to lend could interrupt, potentially materially, our ability to offer consumer and business loan products, which could materially and adversely affect our business. In the event of a partner bank’s inability or unwillingness to lend, we may need to reach a similar agreement with another chartered financial institution or obtain our own bank charter or lending licenses. We may be unable to reach a similar agreement with another partner on favorable terms or at all. Obtaining a bank charter or lending licenses would be a costly, time-consuming and uncertain process, and would subject us to additional laws and regulatory requirements, which could be burdensome, increase our costs, and require us to change our business practices. In addition, as a service provider to these bank partners, which are federally supervised U.S. financial institutions, we are subject from time to time to examination by their federal banking regulators.
In July 2018, we completed the sale of our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio to Synchrony Bank, for total consideration of $6.9 billion. The purchase price is subject to a post-closing true-up and certain other adjustments under the terms of the purchase agreement. As a part of a separate agreement, PayPal earns a revenue share on the portfolio of consumer receivables owned by Synchrony Bank, which includes both the sold and newly generated receivables and we will not hold an ownership interest in newly generated consumer credit receivables. It may take us longer than expected to realize the anticipated benefits of the transaction, and those benefits may ultimately be smaller than anticipated or may not be realized at all, which could adversely affect our business and operating results. In addition, our increased reliance on Synchrony Bank subjects us to risks in the nature of those discussed in this “Risk Factors” section under the caption “We rely on third parties in many aspects of our business, which creates additional risk.”

Our ability to receive the benefit of our business finance offerings may be subject to challenge.

Business loans under our PayPal Working Capital and PayPal Business Loan products are provided by a state chartered industrial bank under a program agreement with us. We acquire the receivables generated by those loans after they are originated.

A case decided in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Madden v. Midland Funding, LLC (786 F.3d 246 (2d Cir. 2015)), resulted in some uncertainty as to whether non-bank entities purchasing loans originated by a bank may rely on federal preemption of state usury laws, and may create an increased risk of litigation by plaintiffs challenging our ability to collect interest and fees in accordance with the terms of certain loans. Although the decision specifically addressed preemption under the National Bank Act, this decision could support future challenges to federal preemption for other institutions, including FDIC-insured, state chartered industrial banks like the issuing bank of loans under PayPal Working Capital and PayPal Business Loan products. After the Madden decision, there continue to be a number of U.S. state and federal court legal actions challenging the viability of business models where a non-bank entity enters into a relationship with a third-party chartered financial institution for the issuance of credit products. While we believe the manner in which PayPal branded credit products are offered can be distinguished from Madden, there can be no assurance as to the outcome of any potential litigation, and an adverse determination could materially and adversely impact our PayPal Working Capital and PayPal Business Loan products and our business.

Some of our credit products expose us to additional risks.

We offer our PayPal Credit consumer product and our PayPal Working Capital and PayPal Business Loan products to a wide range of consumers and merchants in various markets, and the financial success of these products depends on the effective management of related risk. The credit decisioning process for the PayPal Credit consumer product in markets outside the U.S. uses proprietary segmentation and credit algorithms and other analytical techniques designed to analyze the credit risk of specific consumers based on, among other factors, their past purchasing and payment history with PayPal as well as their credit scores. Similarly, proprietary risk models and other indicators are applied to assess merchants who wish to use our business finance offerings to help predict their ability to repay. These risk models may not accurately predict the creditworthiness of a consumer or merchant due to factors such as inaccurate assumptions, including assumptions related to the particular consumer or merchant, market conditions, economic environment, or limited transaction history or other data, among other factors. The accuracy of these risk models and the ability to manage credit risk related to our credit products may also be affected by legal or regulatory requirements, competitors’ actions, changes in consumer behavior, changes in the economic environment, and other factors. Our international expansion of our credit product offerings also exposes us to additional risks, including those discussed in the risk factor captioned “Our international operations subject us to increased risks, which could harm our business.


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Like other businesses with significant exposure to losses from merchant credit, we face the risk that account holders will default on their payment obligations, creating the risk of potential charge-offs. We face similar risks with respect to U.S. consumer credit losses through the profit sharing relationship with Synchrony Bank. The non-payment rate among account holders may increase due to, among other things, changes to underwriting standards, worsening economic conditions, such as a recession or government austerity programs, increases in prevailing interest rates, and high unemployment rates. Account holders who miss payments often fail to repay their loans, and account holders who file for protection under the bankruptcy laws generally do not repay their loans.

We currently purchase receivables related to the PayPal branded merchant credit products in the U.S. If we are unable to fund our purchase of these receivables adequately or in a cost-effective manner, or if we are unable to efficiently manage the cash resources utilized for these purposes, our business could be harmed.

Catastrophic events or geopolitical conditions may disrupt our business

War, terrorism, political events, geopolitical instability, trade barriers and restrictions, public health issues, natural disasters, or other catastrophic events have caused and could cause damage or disruption to the economy and commerce on a global, regional or country-specific basis, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, our customers, and companies with which we do business. Such events could decrease demand for our products and services or make it difficult or impossible for us to deliver products and services to our customers. Our corporate headquarters are located in the Silicon Valley, which is a seismically active region in California. Our business operations are subject to interruption by, among others, natural disasters, fire, power shortages, earthquakes, floods, nuclear power plant accidents, and events beyond our control such as other industrial accidents, terrorist attacks and other hostile acts, labor disputes and public health issues. A catastrophic event that results in a disruption or failure of our systems or operations could result in significant losses and require substantial recovery time and significant expenditures in order to resume or maintain operations, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Changes to our buyer and seller protection programs could increase our loss rate.

Our buyer and seller protection programs protect merchants and consumers from fraudulent transactions, and consumers if they do not receive the item ordered or if the item received is significantly different from its description. In addition, consumers who pay through PayPal may have reimbursement rights from their payment card issuer (usually a bank), which in turn will seek recovery from us. The risk of losses from our buyer and seller protection programs are specific to individual buyers, sellers, and transactions, and may also be impacted by regional variations to these programs, modifications to these programs resulting from changes in regulatory requirements, or changes that we decide to implement, such as expanding the scope of transactions covered by one or more of these programs. Increases in our loss rate, including as a result of changing our buyer and seller protection programs, could harm our business.

Our international operations subject us to increased risks, which could harm our business.

Our international operations have generated approximately one-half of our net revenues in recent years. There are risks inherent in doing business internationally on both a domestic (i.e., in-country) and cross-border basis, including, but not limited to:

foreign currency and cross-border trade risks discussed earlier in this “Risk Factors” section under the captions “We are exposed to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates” and “Any factors that reduce cross-border trade or make such trade more difficult could harm our business”;
risks related to other government regulation or required compliance with local laws;
local licensing and reporting obligations;
obligations to comply with local regulatory and legal obligations related to privacy, data security, and data localization;
expenses associated with localizing our products and services, including offering customers the ability to transact business in the local currency, and adapting our products and services to local preferences (e.g., payment methods) with which we may have limited or no experience;
trade barriers and changes in trade regulations;
difficulties in developing, staffing, and simultaneously managing a large number of varying foreign operations as a result of distance, language, and cultural differences;
stringent local labor laws and regulations;
credit risk and higher levels of payment fraud;
profit repatriation restrictions, foreign currency exchange restrictions, or extreme fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates for a particular currency;
political or social unrest, economic instability, repression, or human rights issues;
geopolitical events, including natural disasters, public health issues, acts of war, and terrorism;

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import or export regulations;
compliance with U.S. laws and foreign laws prohibiting corrupt payments to government officials, such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act, and other local anticorruption laws;
compliance with U.S. and foreign laws designed to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities;
antitrust and competition regulations;
potentially adverse tax developments and consequences;
economic uncertainties relating to sovereign and other debt;
national or regional differences in macroeconomic growth rates;
different, uncertain, overlapping, or more stringent user protection, data protection, privacy, and other laws and regulations; and
increased difficulties in collecting accounts receivable.

Violations of the complex foreign and U.S. laws, rules and regulations that apply to our international operations may result in fines, criminal actions, or sanctions against us, our officers, or our employees; prohibitions on the conduct of our business; and damage to our reputation. Although we have implemented policies and procedures designed to promote compliance with these laws, there can be no assurance that our employees, contractors, or agents will not violate our policies. These risks are inherent in our international operations and expansion, may increase our costs of doing business internationally, and could harm our business.

We are exposed to fluctuations in interest rates.

We are exposed to interest rate risk from our investment portfolio and from interest-rate sensitive assets, including assets underlying the customer balances we hold on our balance sheet as customer accounts. A low interest rate environment or reductions in interest rates may negatively impact our investment income and our net income. In addition, fluctuations in interest rates may adversely impact our customers’ spending levels and ability and willingness to pay outstanding amounts owed to us. Higher interest rates often lead to higher payment obligations by customers to us and other lenders under mortgage, credit card, and other consumer and merchant loans, which may reduce our customers’ ability to remain current on their obligations to us and therefore lead to increased delinquencies, charge-offs, and allowance for loan and interest receivable which could have an adverse effect on our net income.

We have entered into a revolving credit facility and a 364-day delayed-draw term loan credit facility. We have borrowed under these credit facilities from time to time, and any borrowings under these credit facilities bear interest at a floating rate, exposing us to interest rate fluctuations.

Use of our payments services for illegal purposes could harm our business.

Our payment system is susceptible to potentially illegal or improper uses, including money laundering, terrorist financing, illegal online gambling, fraudulent sales of goods or services, illegal sales of prescription medications or controlled substances, piracy of software, movies, music, and other copyrighted or trademarked goods (in particular, digital goods), bank fraud, child pornography human trafficking, prohibited sales of alcoholic beverages or tobacco products, securities fraud, pyramid or ponzi schemes, or to facilitate other illegal activity. Use of our payment system for illegal or improper uses has subjected us, and may subject us in the future, to claims, individual and class action lawsuits, and government and regulatory investigations, inquiries, or requests that could result in liability and reputational harm for us. Moreover, certain activity that may be legal in one jurisdiction may be illegal in another jurisdiction, and a merchant may intentionally or inadvertently be found responsible for importing or exporting illegal goods, resulting in liability for us. Changes in law have increased the penalties for intermediaries providing payment services for certain illegal activities, and government authorities may consider additional payments-related proposals from time to time. Owners of intellectual property rights or government authorities may seek to bring legal action against providers of payments solutions, including PayPal, that are peripherally involved in the sale of infringing or allegedly infringing items. Any threatened or resulting claims could result in reputational harm, and any resulting liabilities, loss of transaction volume, or increased costs could harm our business.


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Our failure to manage our customer funds and the assets underlying our customer funds properly could harm our business.

We hold a substantial amount of funds belonging to our customers, including balances in customer accounts and funds being remitted to sellers of goods and services or recipients of person to person (“P2P”) transactions. In certain jurisdictions where we operate, we are required to hold eligible liquid assets, as defined by the relevant regulators in each jurisdiction, equal to at least 100% of the aggregate amount of all customer balances. Our ability to manage and account accurately for the assets underlying our customer funds and comply with applicable liquid asset requirements requires a high level of internal controls. As our business continues to grow and we expand our product offerings, we must continue to strengthen our associated internal controls. PayPal (Europe), with the permission of the CSSF, utilizes certain European customer balances held by our Luxembourg banking subsidiary to fund credit balances relating to certain customers. Our success requires significant public confidence in our ability to properly manage our customers’ balances and handle large and growing transaction volumes and amounts of customer funds. Any failure to maintain the necessary controls or to manage our customer funds and the assets underlying our customer funds accurately and in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements could result in reputational harm, lead customers to discontinue or reduce their use of our products and result in significant penalties and fines, which could materially harm our business.

We are subject to regulatory activity and antitrust litigation under competition laws.

We are subject to scrutiny by various government agencies under U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, including antitrust and competition laws. An increasing number of governments are actively enforcing competition laws and regulations. Some jurisdictions also provide private rights of action for competitors or consumers to assert claims of anticompetitive conduct. Other companies and government agencies have in the past and may in the future allege that our actions violate the antitrust or competition laws of the U.S., individual states, other countries, or the European Commission, or otherwise constitute unfair competition. Our business agreements or arrangements with customers or other companies could give rise to regulatory action or antitrust litigation. Some regulators, particularly those outside of the U.S., may perceive that our products and services are used so broadly that otherwise uncontroversial business practices could be deemed anticompetitive. Any claims or investigations, even if without merit, may be very expensive to defend or respond to, involve negative publicity, and substantial diversion of management time and effort, and could result in reputational harm, significant judgments, fines or remedial actions against us, or require us to change our business practices.

We are subject to patent litigation.

We have been sued repeatedly for allegedly infringing other parties’ patents. At any given time, we are typically a defendant in a number of patent lawsuits. We expect that we will continue to be subject to patent infringement claims because, among other reasons:

our products and services continue to expand in scope and complexity and to converge with technologies not previously associated with the payments space;
we continue to expand into new business areas, including through acquisitions; and
the number of patent owners who may claim that we, any of the companies that we have acquired, or our customers infringe their patents, and the aggregate number of patents controlled by such patent owners, continues to increase.

Such claims may be brought directly against us or against our users whom we may indemnify because we are contractually obligated to do so or we choose to do so as a business matter. We believe that many of the claims against us and other technology companies have been, and continue to be, initiated by third parties whose sole or primary business is to assert such claims. In addition, we have seen significant patent disputes between operating companies in some technology industries. Patent claims, whether meritorious or not, are time-consuming and costly to manage, defend, and resolve, and could require us to make expensive changes in our methods of doing business, enter into costly royalty or licensing agreements, make substantial payments to satisfy adverse judgments or settle claims or proceedings, or cease conducting certain operations, which would harm our business.

We may be unable to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, or third parties may allege that we are infringing their intellectual property rights.

The protection of our intellectual property, including our trademarks, patents, copyrights, domain names, trade dress, and trade secrets, is important to the success of our business. We seek to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on applicable laws and regulations in the U.S. and internationally, as well as a variety of administrative procedures. We also rely on contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary rights when offering or procuring products and services, including confidentiality and invention assignment agreements entered into with our employees and contractors and confidentiality agreements with parties with whom we conduct business.


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Effective intellectual property protection may not be available in every country in which we offer our products and services. We may be required to expend significant time and expense in order to prevent infringement or to enforce our rights.

Although we have generally taken measures to protect our intellectual property rights, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in protecting or enforcing our rights in every jurisdiction, or that contractual arrangements and other steps that we have taken to protect our intellectual property will prevent third parties from infringing or misappropriating our intellectual property or deter independent development of equivalent or superior intellectual property rights by others. If we are unable to prevent third parties from adopting, registering, or using trademarks and trade dress that infringe, dilute, or otherwise violate our trademark rights, the value of our brands could be diminished and our business could be adversely affected. Also, we may not be able to discover or determine the extent of any unauthorized use of our proprietary rights. We have licensed in the past, and expect to license in the future, certain of our proprietary rights, such as trademarks or copyrighted material, to others. These licensees may take actions that diminish the value of our proprietary rights or harm our reputation. Any failure to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, or significant costs incurred in doing so, could diminish the value of our intangible assets and materially harm our business.

As the number of products in the technology and payments industries increases and the functionality of these products further overlaps, and as we acquire technology through acquisitions or licenses, we may become increasingly subject to intellectual property infringement and other claims. Litigation may be necessary to determine the validity and scope of the patent and other intellectual property rights of others. The ultimate outcome of any allegation is often uncertain and, regardless of the outcome, any such claim, with or without merit, may be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, divert management’s time and attention from our business, and require us to, among other things, redesign or stop providing our products or services, pay substantial amounts to satisfy judgments or settle claims or lawsuits, pay substantial royalty or licensing fees, or satisfy indemnification obligations that we have with certain parties with whom we have commercial relationships. Our failure to obtain necessary license or other rights, or litigation or claims arising out of intellectual property matters, may harm or restrict our business.

We are regularly subject to general litigation, regulatory actions, and government inquiries.

We are regularly subject to claims, individual and class action lawsuits, government and regulatory investigations, inquiries, actions or requests, and other proceedings alleging violations of laws, rules and regulations with respect to competition, antitrust, intellectual property, privacy, data protection, information security, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, sanctions, anti-corruption, consumer protection, fraud, accessibility, securities, tax, labor and employment, commercial disputes, services, charitable fundraising, contract disputes, escheatment of unclaimed or abandoned property, those matters described in Note 13—“Commitments and Contingencies—Litigation and Regulatory Matters—General Matters” to our consolidated financial statements, and other matters. In particular, our business faces ongoing consumer protection and intellectual property litigation, as discussed above. The number and significance of these disputes and inquiries may increase as our business expands in scale, scope and geographic reach, and our products and services increase in scale and complexity. In addition, the laws, rules and regulations affecting our business, including those pertaining to internet and mobile commerce, data protection, payments services, and credit, are subject to ongoing interpretation by the courts and governmental authorities, and the resulting uncertainty in the scope and application of these laws, rules, and regulations increases the risk that we will be subject to private claims and governmental actions alleging violations.

The scope, outcome, and impact of claims, lawsuits, government investigations, disputes, and proceedings to which we are subject cannot be predicted with certainty. Regardless of the outcome, such matters can have an adverse impact, which may be material, on our business, results of operations, or financial condition because of legal costs, diversion of management resources, reputational damage, and other factors. Determining reserves for our pending litigation and regulatory proceedings is a complex, fact-intensive process that involves a high degree of judgment. Resolving one or more of such legal and regulatory proceedings or other matters could potentially require us to make substantial payments to satisfy judgments, fines, or penalties or to settle claims or proceedings, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, or financial condition. These proceedings could also result in reputational harm, criminal sanctions, consent decrees, or orders that prevent us from offering certain products or services, require us to change our business practices in costly ways, or develop non-infringing or otherwise altered products or technologies. Any of these consequences could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.


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While certain of our customer agreements contain arbitration provisions with class action waiver provisions that may limit our exposure to consumer class action litigation, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in enforcing these arbitration provisions, including the class action waiver provisions, in the future or in any given case. Legislative, administrative, or regulatory developments may directly or indirectly prohibit or limit the use of pre-dispute arbitration clauses and class action waiver provisions. Any such prohibitions or limitations on or discontinuation of the use of, such arbitration or class action waiver provisions could subject us to additional lawsuits, including additional consumer class action litigation, and significantly limit our ability to avoid exposure from consumer class action litigation.

Changes in U.S. tax laws could have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, results of operations, and financial conditions.

On December 22, 2017, the U.S. government enacted comprehensive Federal tax legislation commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Tax Act”). The Tax Act made changes to the corporate tax rate, business-related deductions, and taxation of foreign earnings, among others, that are generally effective for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017. Throughout calendar year 2018, the U.S. Treasury and certain states issued proposed and final legislation and clarifying guidance with respect to the various provisions of the Tax Act. Additional legislation and guidance is expected to be issued in 2019, which could have a material adverse impact on the value of our U.S. deferred tax assets, result in significant changes to currently computed income tax liabilities for past and current tax periods, and increase our future U.S. tax expense. We are continuing to evaluate the Tax Act and its requirements, as well as its application to our business and its impact on our effective tax rate. At this stage, it is unclear how many U.S. states will continue to incorporate these federal law changes, or portions thereof, into their tax codes. The implementation by us of new practices and processes designed to comply with, and benefit from, the Tax Act and its rules and regulations could require us to make substantial changes to our business practices, allocate additional resources, and increase our costs, which could negatively affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

We may have exposure to greater than anticipated tax liabilities.

The determination of our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities requires estimation and significant judgment, and there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. For example, compliance with the Tax Act may require the collection of information not regularly produced within the Company, the use of estimates in our financial statements, and the exercise of significant judgment in accounting for its provisions.

Like many other multinational corporations, we are subject to tax in multiple U.S. and foreign tax jurisdictions. Our determination of our tax liability is always subject to audit and review by applicable domestic and foreign authorities, and we are currently undergoing a number of investigations, audits, and reviews by authorities throughout the world. Any adverse outcome of any such audit or review could have a negative effect on our business, and the ultimate tax outcome may differ from the amounts recorded in our financial statements and may materially affect our financial results in the periods for which such determination is made. While we have established reserves based on assumptions and estimates that we believe are reasonable to cover such eventualities, these reserves may prove to be insufficient.

In addition, our future income taxes could be adversely affected by earnings being lower than anticipated, or by the incurrence of losses, in jurisdictions that have lower statutory tax rates and higher than anticipated in jurisdictions that have higher statutory tax rates; by changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, as a result of gains on our foreign exchange risk management program; or changes in tax laws, regulations, or accounting principles, as well as certain discrete items.

Various levels of government, such as U.S. federal and state legislatures, and international organizations, such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) and the EU, are increasingly focused on tax reform and other legislative or regulatory action to increase tax revenue. Any such tax reform or other legislative or regulatory actions could increase our effective tax rate.


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We and our merchants may be subject to sales reporting and record-keeping obligations.

A number of U.S. states, the U.S. federal government and foreign countries have implemented or are in the process of implementing reporting or record-keeping obligations on companies that engage in or facilitate ecommerce to improve tax compliance. Additionally, a number of jurisdictions are reviewing whether payment service providers and other intermediaries could be deemed to be the legal agent of merchants for certain tax purposes. We have modified our systems to meet known requirements and expect further modifications will be required to comply with future requirements, which may negatively impact our customer experience and increase operational costs. Any failure by us to comply with these and similar reporting and record-keeping obligations could result in substantial monetary penalties and other sanctions, adversely impact our ability to do business in certain jurisdictions, and harm our business. In addition, in June 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. that states may collect internet sales tax on online purchases made outside of the state, which could adversely affect some of our merchants and indirectly harm our customers.

Acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic investments, and other strategic transactions could result in operating difficulties and could harm our business.

Acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic investments, and other strategic transactions are important elements of our overall corporate strategy. We expect to continue to evaluate and consider a wide array of potential strategic transactions as part of our overall business strategy, including business combinations, acquisitions, and dispositions of certain businesses, technologies, services, products, and other assets, as well as joint ventures, strategic investments, and commercial and strategic partnerships. These transactions may involve significant challenges, uncertainties and risks, including:

the potential loss of key customers, vendors, and other key business partners of the companies we acquire, or dispose of, following and continuing after announcement of our transaction plans;
difficulty making strategic hires of new employees, declining employee morale, and retention issues affecting employees (particularly the potential loss of key personnel) of companies that we acquire or dispose of, which may result from changes in compensation, management, reporting relationships, future prospects, or the direction of the acquired or disposed business;
diversion of management time and focus;
inability to realize synergies expected to result from an acquisition;
the need to and difficulty of integrating the operations, systems (including accounting, compliance, management, information, human resource, and other administrative systems), technologies, data assets, products, and personnel of each acquired company, which is an inherently risky and potentially lengthy and costly process;
the need to and difficulty of implementing and/or enhancing controls, procedures, and policies appropriate for a larger public company at acquired companies which, prior to the acquisition, may have lacked such controls, procedures, and policies or whose controls, procedures, and policies did not meet applicable legal and regulatory standards;
the inefficiencies and lack of control that may result if integration of acquired companies is delayed or not implemented, and unforeseen difficulties and costs that may arise as a result;
potential exposure to new or increased regulatory oversight and regulatory obligations associated with new products and services or entry into new markets;
risks associated with our expansion into new international markets;
unidentified issues discovered in our due diligence process, including product or service quality issues, intellectual property issues, and legal contingencies;
risks associated with the complexity of entering into and effectively managing joint ventures, strategic investments, and other strategic partnerships;
risks associated with undetected cyberattacks or security breaches at companies that we acquire or with which we may combine or partner;
lawsuits or regulatory actions resulting from the transaction;
liability for activities or conduct of the acquired company before the acquisition, including legal and regulatory claims or disputes, violations of laws and regulations, commercial disputes, tax liabilities, and other known and unknown liabilities;
the acquisition of new customer and employee personal information, which in and of itself may require regulatory approval and/or additional controls, policies, and procedures, and subject us to additional exposure and additional complexity and costs of compliance; and
our dependence on the accounting, financial reporting, operating metrics and similar systems, controls and processes of acquired businesses, and the risk that errors or irregularities in those systems, controls, and processes will lead to errors in our financial statements or make it more difficult to manage the acquired business.


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At any given time, we may be engaged in discussions or negotiations with respect to one or more of these or other types of transactions, any of which could, individually or in the aggregate, be material to our financial condition and results of operations. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in identifying, negotiating, and consummating favorable transaction opportunities. It may take us longer than expected to fully realize the anticipated benefits of these transactions, and those benefits may ultimately be smaller than anticipated or may not be realized at all, which could adversely affect our business and operating results. Any acquisitions or dispositions may also require us to issue additional equity securities, spend our cash, or incur debt (and increased interest expense), recognize liabilities, and record amortization expenses related to intangible assets or write-offs of goodwill or intangibles, which could dilute the economic and voting rights of our stockholders and adversely affect our results of operations and the interests of holders of our indebtedness, as applicable.

We completed our acquisition of iZettle AB (publ) (“iZettle”) on September 20, 2018. Prior to the closing of the acquisition, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) initiated a review of the transaction. On December 5, 2018, the CMA referred the acquisition for a Phase 2 investigation and on December 24, 2018, directed PayPal to appoint a monitoring trustee. The deadline for the final decision is May 21, 2019. PayPal is working cooperatively with the CMA and has agreed to hold parts of the PayPal and iZettle businesses separate as agreed with the CMA, pending completion of the CMA’s investigation. Our ability to successfully and timely integrate iZettle’s business and operations with ours and realize the potential synergies and anticipated benefits from the acquisition is subject to the timing and possible outcome of the CMA’s review. The CMA has broad discretion and may impose requirements, limitations or costs, mandate remedies, such as divestitures of certain business assets, or place additional restrictions on the conduct of our businesses, to ensure sufficient competition in the U.K. market. No assurance can be given as to the ultimate impact and outcome of the CMA review, that approval from the CMA will be obtained, or the terms and conditions of such approval.

Because acquisitions are inherently risky, our transactions may not be successful and may, in some cases, harm our operating results or financial condition. Any acquisitions or dispositions may also require us to issue additional equity securities, spend our cash, or incur debt (and increased interest expense), recognize liabilities, and record amortization expenses related to intangible assets or impairment of goodwill or intangibles, which could dilute the economic and voting rights of our stockholders and adversely affect our results of operations and the interests of holders of our indebtedness, as applicable.

Joint ventures and minority investments inherently involve a lesser degree of influence over business operations, thereby potentially increasing the financial, legal, operational, and/or compliance risks associated with the joint venture or minority investment. In addition, we may be dependent on joint venture partners, controlling shareholders, management or other persons or entities who control them and who may have business interests, strategies or goals that are inconsistent with ours. Business decisions or other actions or omissions of the joint venture partners, controlling shareholders, management or other persons or entities who control joint ventures or companies in which we invest may adversely affect the value of our investment, result in litigation or regulatory action against us, and otherwise damage our reputation and brand.

There are risks associated with our indebtedness.

We have incurred indebtedness, and we may incur additional indebtedness in the future. Our ability to pay interest and repay the principal for our indebtedness is dependent upon our ability to manage our business operations and generate sufficient cash flows to service such debt. In addition, changes by any rating agency to our outlook or credit rating could negatively affect the value of both our debt and equity securities and increase our borrowing costs. If our credit ratings are downgraded or other negative action is taken, the interest rate payable by us under out indebtedness may increase. In addition, any downgrades to our credit ratings may affect our ability to obtain additional financing in the future and may affect the terms of any such financing. Any of these factors could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

We rely on third parties in many aspects of our business, which creates additional risk.

We rely on third parties in many aspects of our business, including the following:

networks, banks, payment processors, and payment gateways that link us to the payment card and bank clearing networks to process transactions;
unaffiliated third-party lenders to originate the U.S. PayPal Credit and PayPal Mastercard consumer credit products, PayPal Working Capital, and PayPal Business Loan products;
third parties that provide loan servicing and customer statements processing;
third parties that provide certain outsourced customer support and product development functions, which are critical to our operations; and
third parties that provide facilities, infrastructure, components, and services, including data center facilities and cloud computing.


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Because we rely on third parties to provide certain of our services and to facilitate certain of our business activities, we face increased operational risk. These third parties may be subject to financial, legal, regulatory, and labor issues, cybersecurity incidents, privacy breaches, service terminations, disruptions or interruptions, or other problems, which may impose additional costs or requirements on us or prevent these third parties from providing services to us or our customers on our behalf, which could harm our business. In addition, these third parties may breach their agreements with us, disagree with our interpretation of contract terms or applicable laws and regulations, refuse to continue or renew these agreements on commercially reasonable terms or at all, fail or refuse to process transactions or provide other services adequately, take actions that degrade the functionality of our services, impose additional costs or requirements on us or our customers, or give preferential treatment to competitive services. There can be no assurance that third parties who provide services directly to us or our customers on our behalf will continue to do so on acceptable terms, or at all. If any third parties do not adequately or appropriately provide their services or perform their responsibilities to us or our customers on our behalf, we may be unable to procure alternatives from other third parties in a timely and efficient manner and on acceptable terms, or at all, and we may be subject to business disruptions, losses or costs to remediate any of the deficiencies, customer dissatisfaction, reputational damage, legal or regulatory proceedings, or other adverse consequences which could harm our business.

Our retail point of sale solutions expose us to additional risks.

We have announced several retail point of sale solutions, which enable merchants to accept payments using a payments card reader attached to, or otherwise communicating with, a mobile device or to scan payment cards and codes using the mobile device’s embedded camera, and which enable consumers to use their mobile devices to pay at the point of sale. We have entered into strategic partnerships with major payment card networks to further expand our relationship in a way that will make it easier for merchants to accept and consumers to choose to pay for transactions utilizing credit and debit cards via PayPal at the point of sale. Those agreements provide us with access to each of these partner's tokenization services in the U.S. for in-store point-of-sale PayPal transactions, which we expect will increase the number of point of sale transactions that we process. We believe that our recent acquisition of iZettle will enable us to further expand our in-store presence. As we continue to expand our product and service offerings at the retail point of sale, we will face additional risks, including:

increased expectations from offline retailers regarding the reliability and availability of our systems and services and correspondingly lower amounts of downtime, which we may not be able to meet;
significant competition at the retail point of sale, particularly from established payment card providers, many of which have substantially greater resources than we do;
increased targeting by fraudsters; given that our fraud models are less developed in this area, we may experience increases in fraud and associated transaction losses as we adjust to fraudulent activity at the point of sale;
exposure to product liability claims to the extent that hardware devices that we produce for use at the retail point of sale malfunction or are not in compliance with laws, which could result in substantial liability and require product recalls or other actions;
exposure to additional laws, rules, and regulations;
increased reliance on third parties involved with processing in-store payments, including independent software providers, electronic point of sale providers, hardware providers (such as cash register and pin-pad providers), payment processors, and banks that enable in-store transactions; and
lower operating income than our other payment solutions.

Unless we are able to successfully manage these risks, including driving adoption of, and significant volume through, our retail point of sale solutions over time, our business may be harmed.


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Our success largely depends on key personnel. Because competition for our key employees is intense, we may not be able to attract, retain, and develop the highly skilled employees we need to support our business. The loss of key personnel could harm our ability to maintain and grow our business.

Our future success and performance are significantly dependent upon the continued services of key personnel, including our executive team and other highly skilled employees, and our ability to attract, retain, and motivate such personnel. Competition for key personnel is intense, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, where our corporate headquarters are located and where the cost of living is high, and we may be unable to successfully attract, integrate, or retain sufficiently qualified key personnel. In making employment decisions, particularly in the technology and payments industries, job candidates often consider the value of the equity awards they would receive in connection with their employment, and our stock price volatility, or a perception that the market price of our stock may not increase or may increase more slowly than stock prices at other technology or payments companies, may make it more difficult to attract, retain, and motivate employees. We may be limited in our ability to recruit internationally by restrictive domestic immigration laws or policies. Potential changes in U.S. immigration policy may make it difficult to renew or obtain visas for any highly skilled personnel that we have hired or are actively recruiting. Negative sentiments towards the U.S. as a result of these potential changes may also adversely affect our international recruiting efforts. Furthermore, legislative or administrative changes to immigration or visa laws and regulations may impair our hiring processes or projects involving personnel who are not citizens of the country where the work is to be performed. In addition, we do not have long-term employment agreements with any of our key personnel and do not maintain any “key person” life insurance policies. The loss of the services of any of our key personnel, or if we are not able to attract or retain highly qualified key personnel effectively, could harm our business and growth prospects.

We are subject to risks associated with information disseminated through our products and services.

Companies providing online services may be subject to claims relating to information disseminated through them, including claims alleging defamation, libel, harassment, hate speech, breach of contract, invasion of privacy, negligence, copyright or trademark infringement, or other theories based on the nature and content of the materials disseminated through the services, among other things. The laws relating to the liability of companies providing online services for information disseminated through their services are subject to frequent challenges. We are also subject to potential liability to third parties for the customer-provided content on our products and services, particularly in jurisdictions outside the U.S. where the applicable laws are unsettled. If we become liable for information provided by our customers and carried on our products and services, we could be directly harmed and we may be forced to implement new measures to reduce our exposure to this liability, including expending substantial resources or discontinuing certain product or service offerings, which could harm our business.

Risks Related to Our Separation from eBay

If the distribution, together with certain related transactions, does not qualify as a transaction that is generally tax-free for U.S. federal income tax purposes under Sections 368(a)(1)(D) and 355 of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”), eBay, PayPal and eBay stockholders could be subject to significant tax liabilities.

On July 17, 2015, we became an independent publicly traded company through the pro rata distribution by eBay Inc. of 100% of our outstanding common stock to eBay’s stockholders (which we sometimes refer to as the “separation” or the “distribution”). eBay received an opinion from its outside legal counsel regarding the qualification of the distribution, together with certain related transactions, as a transaction that is generally tax-free for U.S. federal income tax purposes under Sections 368(a)(1)(D) and 355 of the Code. The opinion was based on and relied on, among other things, certain facts and assumptions, as well as certain representations, statements, and undertakings of eBay and of us, including those relating to the past and future conduct of eBay and of us. If any of these representations, statements, or undertakings were, or became, inaccurate or incomplete, or if eBay or we breach any of our respective covenants in the separation documents, the opinion of counsel may be invalid and the conclusions reached therein could be jeopardized.

Notwithstanding the opinion of counsel, the IRS could determine that the distribution, together with certain related transactions, should be treated as a taxable transaction if the IRS determines that any of these representations, assumptions, or undertakings upon which such opinion was based are incorrect or have been violated or if the IRS disagrees with the conclusions in the opinion of counsel. An opinion of counsel is not binding on the IRS or any court and there can be no assurance that the IRS will not challenge the conclusions reached in the opinion. The IRS did not provide any opinion in advance of the separation that our proposed transaction is tax-free.


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If the distribution, together with certain related transactions, failed to qualify as a transaction that is generally tax-free under Sections 368(a)(1)(D) and 355 of the Code, in general, eBay would recognize taxable gain as if it had sold the PayPal common stock in a taxable sale for its fair market value, eBay stockholders who received PayPal common stock in the distribution may be subject to tax as if they had received a taxable distribution equal to the fair market value of such shares, and we could incur significant liabilities.

There are risks associated with our relationship with eBay.

In connection with our separation from eBay, we entered into a separation and distribution agreement with eBay, as well as various other agreements, including an operating agreement, a tax matters agreement, an employee matters agreement, an intellectual property matters agreement, a data sharing addendum, and a product development agreement. The separation agreement, the tax matters agreement, the employee matters agreement, and the intellectual property matters agreement determined the allocation of assets and liabilities (including by means of licensing) between the companies following the separation for those respective areas and include associated indemnification obligations. The operating agreement, the data sharing addendum, and the product development agreement establish certain commercial relationships between eBay and us related to payment processing, credit, and data sharing. Disputes between eBay and us have arisen and others may arise in the future; an adverse outcome in such matters could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. If either we or eBay are unable to satisfy our performance, payment, or indemnification obligations under these agreements, we could incur operational difficulties or losses or be required to make substantial indemnification or other payments to eBay.

Our relationship with eBay is governed, in part, by an operating agreement entered into at separation with a term of five years (expiring July 2020). This operating agreement defines a number of important elements of our commercial relationship with eBay, as well as certain obligations and restrictions that limit PayPal’s provision of services to certain competitive platform operators of eBay (as specified in the operating agreement). eBay remains a significant source of our revenues and operating income. We expect the portion of our revenue and operating income attributable to eBay to continue to decline due to various factors (many of which are beyond our control), including the expiration (or earlier termination) of the operating agreement with eBay, and the extent to which eBay intermediates payments on its platform (including by acting as a merchant of record), limits the availability of PayPal as a payment option or offers (or promotes) alternative payment options, directs transactions on its platforms to different providers of payment services, or eliminates or modifies its risk management or customer protection programs on its platforms, which could result in customer dissatisfaction, reduction in eBay volume, and other consequences adverse to our business. If we are unable to generate sufficient business from our non-eBay customers to offset the expected reduction in the portion of our business attributable to eBay, it could materially impact the growth in our business and our ability to meet our long-term financial targets.

Risks Related to Our Common Stock

The price of our common stock has fluctuated and may continue to fluctuate significantly.

The price of our common stock has fluctuated and may continue to fluctuate significantly due to a number of factors, some of which may be beyond our control, including, but not limited to:

actual or anticipated fluctuations in our operating results;
changes in financial estimates by us or securities analysts and recommendations or lack of coverage and reports by securities analysts;
changes in our capital structure;
the activities of our competitors;
speculation, coverage, or sentiment in the media or the investment community;
the operating and stock price performance and valuation of comparable companies;
our quarterly or annual earnings, or those of other companies in our industry;
the public's reaction to our press releases, our other public announcements, and our filings with the SEC;
additions or departures of key personnel;
announcements related to litigation, regulation, or disputes;
changes to the regulatory and legal environment under which we operate; and
market conditions or trends in the payments industry, the industries of merchants, and the domestic and worldwide economy as a whole.


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As a result of these and other factors, investors in our common stock may not be able to resell their shares at or above the price at which they purchase our common stock. In addition, the stock market in general has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of companies like us. These broad market and industry factors may materially reduce the market price of our common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In addition, in the past, some companies that have had volatile market prices for their securities have been subject to class action or derivative lawsuits. The filing of a lawsuit against us, regardless of the outcome, could have a negative effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations, as it could result in substantial legal costs and a diversion of management's attention and resources.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation designates the state courts of the State of Delaware, or, if no state court located in the State of Delaware has jurisdiction, the federal court for the District of Delaware, as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could discourage lawsuits against us and our directors and officers.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that unless the corporation otherwise determines, the state courts of the State of Delaware, or, if no state court located in the State of Delaware has jurisdiction, the federal court for the District of Delaware, will be the sole and exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors or officers to us or our stockholders, any action asserting a claim against us or any of our directors or officers arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”) or our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or bylaws, or any action asserting a claim against us or any of our directors or officers governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This exclusive forum provision may limit the ability of our stockholders to bring a claim in a judicial forum that such stockholders find favorable for disputes with us or our directors or officers, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors and officers. Alternatively, if a court outside of Delaware were to find this exclusive forum provision inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings described above, we could incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, or results of operations.

Certain provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws may prevent or delay an acquisition of our company, which could decrease the trading price of our common stock.

Certain provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may have the effect of deterring coercive takeover practices and inadequate takeover bids by making such practices or bids unacceptably expensive to the bidder and by encouraging prospective acquirers to negotiate with our Board of Directors rather than to attempt a hostile takeover. These provisions include, among others:

rules regarding how stockholders may present proposals or nominate directors for election at stockholder meetings;
the fact that directors may not be elected, removed, or replaced at stockholder-requested special meetings unless a person, entity, or group owns at least a majority of our outstanding common stock;
the right of our Board of Directors to issue preferred stock and to determine the voting, dividend, and other rights of preferred stock without stockholder approval;
the ability of our directors, and not stockholders, to fill vacancies on our board of directors in most circumstances and to determine the size of our board of directors;
the prohibition on stockholders acting by written consent; and
the absence of cumulative rights in the election of directors.

We have also elected not to be governed by Section 203 of the DGCL, which provides that, subject to limited exceptions, persons that acquire, or are affiliated with a person that acquires, more than 15% of the outstanding voting stock of a Delaware corporation shall not engage in any business combination with that corporation, including by merger, consolidation, or acquisitions of additional shares, for a three-year period following the date on which that person or its affiliates becomes the holder of more than 15% of the corporation’s outstanding voting stock. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, however, contains a provision that generally mirrors Section 203 of the DGCL, except that it provides for a 20% threshold instead of the 15% provided for by the DGCL. These provisions could delay or prevent a change of control that our stockholders may favor.

While these provisions are not intended to make us immune from takeovers, they will apply even if the offer may be considered beneficial by some stockholders and may delay or prevent an acquisition that our Board of Directors determines is not in the best interests of us and our stockholders. These provisions may also prevent or discourage attempts to remove and replace incumbent directors.


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ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.


ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

We own and lease various properties in the U.S. and other countries around the world. We use the properties for executive and administrative offices, data centers, product development offices, and customer service offices. As of December 31, 2018, our owned and leased properties provided us with aggregate square footage as follows:
 
 
United States
 
Other Countries
 
Total
 
(In millions)
Owned facilities
1.1

 
0.2

 
1.3

Leased facilities
1.2

 
1.9

 
3.1

Total facilities
2.3

 
2.1

 
4.4

We own a total of approximately 106 acres of land, with approximately 85 acres in the U.S. Our corporate headquarters are located in San Jose, California and occupy approximately 0.7 million of owned square feet.
    

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

The information set forth under “Note 13—Commitments and Contingencies—Litigation and Regulatory Matters” to the consolidated financial statements included in Part IV, Item 15 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K is incorporated herein by reference.


ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

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PART II

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Common Stock

PayPal common stock is quoted on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the ticker symbol “PYPL.”

As of January 31, 2019, there were approximately 3,824 holders of record of our common stock. The actual number of stockholders is significantly greater than this number of record holders, and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners but whose shares are held in street name by brokers and other nominees.

Dividend Policy

We have never paid any cash dividends and we currently do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

Stock Repurchase Activity

In April 2017, our Board of Directors authorized a stock repurchase program that provides for the repurchase of up to $5 billion of our common stock, with no expiration from the date of authorization. This program became effective in December 2017 upon completion of a previous stock repurchase program. In July 2018, our Board of Directors authorized an additional stock repurchase program that provides for the repurchase of up to $10 billion of our common stock, with no expiration from the date of authorization. This program will become effective upon completion of the April 2017 stock repurchase program. Our stock repurchase programs are intended to offset the impact of dilution from our equity compensation programs and, subject to market conditions and other factors, may also be used to make opportunistic repurchases of our common stock to reduce outstanding share count. Any share repurchases under our stock repurchase programs may be made through open market transactions, block trades, privately negotiated transactions including accelerated share repurchase agreements or other means at times and in such amounts as management deems appropriate, and will be funded from our cash from operations or other financing alternatives. Moreover, any stock repurchases are subject to market conditions and other uncertainties and we cannot predict if or when any stock repurchases will be made. We may terminate our stock repurchase programs at any time without notice.

The stock repurchase activity under our stock repurchase programs during the three months ended December 31, 2018 is summarized as follows:
 
Total number of shares purchased
 
Average price
paid per share
(1)
 
Total number of shares purchased as part of publicly announced plans or programs
 
Approximate dollar value of shares that may yet be purchased under the plans or programs
 
(In millions, except per share amounts)
October 1, 2018 through October 31, 2018

 
$

 

 
$
12,074

November 1, 2018 through November 30, 2018
1.1

 
$
84.21

 
1.1

 
11,980

December 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018
6.0

 
$
84.18

 
6.0

 
11,474

 
7.1

 
 
 
7.1

 
$
11,474

(1) Average price paid per share includes broker commissions.

No activity has occurred to date under the July 2018 repurchase program.


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ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
The following selected financial data reflect the consolidated operations of PayPal. PayPal derived the selected consolidated income statement data for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016 and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2018 and 2017 as set forth below, from its audited consolidated financial statements, which are included in “Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. PayPal derived the selected consolidated income statement data for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 and selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016, 2015, and 2014 from audited consolidated financial statements not included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The historical results do not necessarily indicate the results expected for any future period. To ensure a full understanding, you should read the selected consolidated financial data presented below in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes included elsewhere in this report.
 
Year Ended December 31,
 
2018
 
2017
 
2016
 
2015
 
2014
 
(In millions, except per share amounts)
Consolidated Statement of Income Data:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Net revenues
$
15,451

 
$
13,094

 
$
10,842

 
$
9,248

 
$
8,025

Operating income
2,194

 
2,127

 
1,586

 
1,461

 
1,268

Net income
2,057

 
1,795

 
1,401

 
1,228

 
419

Net income per share:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Basic
$
1.74

 
$
1.49

 
$
1.16

 
$
1.00

 
$
0.34

Diluted
$
1.71

 
$
1.47

 
$
1.15

 
$
1.00

 
$
0.34

Weighted average shares(1)(2):
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Basic
1,184

 
1,203

 
1,210

 
1,222

 
1,218

Diluted
1,203

 
1,221

 
1,218

 
1,229

 
1,224

Consolidated Balance Sheet Data:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Total assets
$
43,332

 
$
40,774

 
$
33,103

 
$
28,881

 
$
21,917

Total long-term liabilities
2,042

 
1,917

 
1,513

 
1,505

 
386

(1) On July 17, 2015, the distribution date, eBay stockholders of record as of the close of business on July 8, 2015 received one share of PayPal common stock for every share of eBay common stock held as of the record date. Basic and diluted net income per share for the year ended December 31, 2014 was calculated using the number of common shares distributed on July 17, 2015.
(2) The weighted average number of common shares outstanding for basic and diluted earnings per share for the year ended December 31, 2015 was based on the number of common shares distributed on July 17, 2015 for the period prior to distribution and the weighted average number of common shares outstanding for the period beginning after the distribution date.



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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements that involve expectations, plans or intentions (such as those relating to future business, future results of operations or financial condition, new or planned features or services, or management strategies). These forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as “may,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “project,” “forecast,” and other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, those discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as in our consolidated financial statements, related notes, and the other information appearing elsewhere in this report and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). We do not intend, and undertake no obligation except as required by law, to update any of our forward-looking statements after the date of this report to reflect actual results or future events or circumstances. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. You should read the following “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes that appear elsewhere in this report. Unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires, references to “we,” “our,” “us,” “the Company” and “PayPal” refer to PayPal Holdings and its consolidated subsidiaries.

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Business Environment

We are a leading technology platform and digital payments company that enables digital and mobile payments on behalf of consumers and merchants worldwide. PayPal is committed to democratizing financial services and empowering people and businesses to join and thrive in the global economy. Our goal is to enable our consumers and merchants to manage and move their money anywhere in the world, anytime, on any platform, and using any device. We also facilitate person-to-person (“P2P”) payments through our PayPal, Venmo and Xoom products. Our combined payment solutions, including our PayPal, PayPal Credit, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom, and iZettle products, compose our proprietary Payments Platform.

We operate globally and in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment characterized by a heightened regulatory focus on all aspects of the payments industry. That focus continues to become even more heightened as regulators on a global basis focus on such important issues as countering terrorist financing, anti-money laundering, privacy, cybersecurity, and consumer protection. Some of the laws and regulations to which we are subject were enacted recently, and the laws and regulations applicable to us, including those enacted prior to the advent of digital and mobile payments, are continuing to evolve through legislative and regulatory action and judicial interpretation. New or changing laws and regulations, including how such laws and regulations are interpreted and implemented, as well as increased penalties and enforcement actions related to non-compliance, could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Therefore, we monitor these areas closely to design compliant solutions for our customers who depend on us.

Information security risks for global payments and technology companies like us have significantly increased in recent years. We are not immune to these risks and there can be no assurance that we will not suffer such losses in the future. For additional information regarding our information security risks, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the caption—“Cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities could result in serious harm to our reputation, business and financial condition.

The United Kingdom (“U.K.”) held a referendum in June 2016 in which a majority of voters approved an exit from the European Union (“EU”) (commonly referred to as “Brexit”). In March 2017, the U.K. government initiated the exit process under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, which commenced a two-year period expiring on March 29, 2019, after which time the U.K. is expected to leave the EU in the absence of any effective extension to the Article 50 period. Political negotiations are underway; however, there is a significant lack of clarity over the terms of the U.K.'s exit from the EU and the terms of the U.K.'s future relationship with the EU. The U.K.'s financial service regulators are implementing Temporary Permission Regimes (“TPR”) that are expected to be put in place by the U.K.'s government to support European Economic Area (“EEA”) financial service firms in continuing to conduct business in the U.K. should the U.K. exit the EU without an agreement. The final TPR rules are expected to be published in the first quarter of 2019 and will come into effect when the U.K. leaves the EU. Accordingly, we may need to adjust our business to comply with additional legal and regulatory requirements if accessing the TPR. We are currently unable to determine the impact that Brexit will have on our business, as any impact will depend, in part, on the outcome of tariff, trade, regulatory, and other negotiations. For additional information on how Brexit could affect our business, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the caption—“The United Kingdom’s departure from the EU could adversely affect us.”

Brexit could adversely affect U.K., regional (including European) and worldwide economic and market conditions, and could contribute to instability in global financial and foreign exchange markets, including volatility in the value of the British Pound and Euro. We have foreign exchange exposure management programs designed to help reduce the impact from foreign currency rate movements.

In 2018, 2017, and 2016, net revenues generated from our U.K. operations constituted 11%, 11% and 12%, respectively, of total net revenues. In 2018, 2017, and 2016, net revenues generated from the EU (excluding the U.K.) constituted less than 20% of total net revenues. Approximately 31% and 30% of our gross loans and interest receivables as of December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively, were generated from our U.K. operations. Approximately 7% and 5% of our gross loans and interest receivables as of December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively, were generated from the EU (excluding the U.K.) operations.


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Overview of Results of Operations

The following table provides a summary of our consolidated GAAP financial measures for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016:
 
Year Ended December 31,
 
Percent Increase/(Decrease)
 
2018
 
2017
 
2016
 
2018
 
2017
 
(In millions, except percentages and per share amounts)
Net revenues
$
15,451

 
$
13,094

 
$
10,842

 
18
 %
 
21
 %
Operating expenses
13,257

 
10,967

 
9,256

 
21
 %
 
18
 %
Operating income
2,194

 
2,127

 
1,586

 
3
 %
 
34
 %
Operating margin
14
%
 
16
%
 
15
%
 
**

 
**

Income tax expense
319

 
405

 
230

 
(21
)%
 
76
 %
Effective tax rate
13
%
 
18
%
 
14
%
 
**

 
**

Net income
$
2,057

 
$
1,795

 
$
1,401

 
15
 %
 
28
 %
Net income per diluted share
$
1.71

 
$
1.47

 
$
1.15

 
16
 %
 
28
 %
Net cash provided by operating activities
$
5,483

 
$
2,531

 
$
3,158

 
117
 %
 
(20
)%
All amounts in tables are rounded to the nearest million, except as otherwise noted. As a result, certain amounts may not recalculate using the rounded amounts provided.
** Not Meaningful

Net revenues increased $2.4 billion, or 18%, in 2018 and $2.3 billion, or 21%, in 2017. The increase was primarily driven by growth in TPV (as defined below under “Net Revenues”) of 27% in 2018 and 27% in 2017. Net revenues from our acquisitions completed in 2018 and 2017 collectively contributed approximately one percentage point to the growth rate in 2018. The increase from the impact of acquisitions was offset by a decrease in interest and fee income due to the sale of our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio to Synchrony Bank in July 2018, which resulted in a negative impact of approximately four percentage points to the net revenues growth rate in 2018. In 2017, net revenues from our acquisitions of TIO and Swift were not material.

Total operating expenses increased $2.3 billion, or 21%, in 2018 and $1.7 billion, or 18%, in 2017. The increase in 2018 was due primarily to an increase in transaction expense, general and administrative, transaction and loan loss, sales and marketing, and restructuring and other expenses. Operating expenses related to our acquisitions completed in 2018 and 2017 collectively contributed approximately three percentage points to the growth rate in total operating expenses in 2018. In March 2018, management decided to wind down TIO's operations. The increase in total operating expense in 2017 was due primarily to an increase in transaction expense, sales and marketing, general and administrative, product development, and restructuring and other charges. Operating expenses related to TIO and Swift collectively contributed one percentage point to the 2017 growth rate.

Operating income increased $67 million, or 3%, in 2018 and increased $541 million, or 34% in 2017. Operating income increased in 2018 and 2017 due primarily to the increase in net revenues, offset by the growth in operating expenses. Our acquisitions completed in 2018 and 2017 collectively had a negative impact of approximately seven percentage points to the 2018 growth rate in operating income. Our acquisitions in 2017 collectively had a negative impact of four percentage points on our 2017 growth rate in operating income. Our operating margin was 14%, 16%, and 15% in 2018, 2017, and 2016, respectively. Operating margin in 2018 was negatively impacted by growth in our transaction expense, which increased 26% in 2018, compared to net revenues, which increased 18% in the same period, as well as the negative impact of acquisitions. These impacts in 2018 were partially offset by operating efficiencies in our business. Operating margin in 2017 was negatively impacted by growth in our transaction expense, which increased 32% in 2017, compared to net revenues, which increased 21% in the same period, as well as restructuring expense of $40 million incurred in 2017. These impacts in 2017 were offset by operating efficiencies in our business, and a one-time benefit of $322 million pertaining to reversal of allowances related to loans and interest receivables due to the designation as held for sale of our U.S. consumer credit portfolio in November 2017.

Net income increased by $262 million, or 15%, in 2018 and $394 million, or 28%, in 2017. The increase in net income in 2018 was attributable to an increase in operating income of $67 million and an increase in other income (expense), net of $109 million, which was driven by unrealized gains on equity investments and an increase in interest income, partially offset by an increase in interest expense. The increase in net income was further impacted by a decrease in income tax expense of $86 million, primarily driven by a reduction in net tax expense recognized with respect to the Tax Act, partially offset by an increase in tax expense due to the increase in operating income and other income (expense), net. The increase in net income in 2017 was attributable to an increase in operating income of $541 million and an increase in other income (expense), net of $28 million, partially offset by an increase in income tax expense of $175 million.


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Non-GAAP financial measures

The following table provides a summary of our consolidated non-GAAP financial measures for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016:
 
Year Ended December 31,
 
Percent Increase/(Decrease)
 
2018
 
2017
 
2016
 
2018
 
2017
 
(In millions, except percentages and per share amounts)
Non-GAAP net revenues
$
15,451

 
$
13,055

 
$
10,842

 
18
%
 
20
 %
Non-GAAP operating income
$
3,349

 
$
2,755

 
$
2,174

 
22
%
 
27
 %
Non-GAAP operating margin
22
%
 
21
%
 
20
%
 
** 

 
** 

Non-GAAP income tax expense
$
618

 
$
510

 
$
394

 
21
%
 
29
 %
Non-GAAP net income
$
2,913

 
$
2,318

 
$
1,825

 
26
%
 
27
 %
Non-GAAP net income per diluted share
$
2.42

 
$
1.90

 
$
1.50

 
28
%
 
27
 %
Free Cash Flow(1)
$
4,660

 
$
1,864

 
$
2,489

 
150
%
 
(25
)%
All amounts in tables are rounded to the nearest million, except as otherwise noted. As a result, certain amounts may not recalculate using the rounded amounts provided.
** Not Meaningful
(1) The year ended December 31, 2018 includes a positive impact of approximately $1.4 billion due to the completion of the sale of our US consumer credit receivables portfolio in July 2018. The year ended December 31, 2017 includes a negative impact of approximately $1.3 billion due to the change in presentation of the U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio subsequent to its designation as held for sale in November 2017.
Non-GAAP net revenues, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP income tax expense, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP net income per diluted share, and free cash flow are not financial measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). For information on how we compute these non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation to the most directly comparable financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP, please refer to “Non-GAAP Financial Information” below.
Impact of Foreign Currency Exchange Rates
We have significant international operations that are denominated in foreign currencies, primarily the British Pound, Euro, Australian Dollar, and Canadian Dollar, subjecting us to foreign currency risk which may adversely impact our financial results. The strengthening or weakening of the U.S. dollar versus the British Pound, Euro, Australian Dollar, and Canadian Dollar, as well as other currencies in which we conduct our international operations, impacts the translation of our net revenues and expenses generated in these foreign currencies into the U.S. dollar. In 2018, 2017, and 2016, we generated approximately 46%, 46% and 47% of our net revenues from customers domiciled outside of the United States, respectively. Because we have generated substantial net revenues internationally in recent periods, including during the periods presented, we are subject to the risks of doing business in countries outside of the U.S. as discussed under “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Risk Factors That May Affect Our Business, Results of Operations and Financial Condition.”
We calculate the year-over-year impact of foreign currency movements on our business using prior period foreign currency exchange rates applied to current period transactional currency amounts. While changes in foreign currency exchange rates affect our reported results, we have a foreign currency exchange exposure management program whereby we designate certain foreign currency exchange contracts as cash flow hedges intended to reduce the impact on earnings from foreign currency exchange rate movements. Gains and losses from these foreign currency exchange contracts are recognized as a component of transaction revenues in the same period the forecasted transactions impact earnings.


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In the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, the year-over-year foreign currency movements relative to the U.S. dollar had the following impact on our reported results:
 
Year Ended December 31,
 
2018
 
2017
 
(In millions)
Favorable impact to net revenues (exclusive of hedging impact)
$
123

 
$
10

Hedging impact
(23
)
 
17

Favorable impact to net revenues
100

 
27

Unfavorable impact to operating expense
(18
)
 
(21
)
Net favorable impact to operating income
$
82

 
$
6


While we enter into foreign currency exchange contracts to help reduce the impact on earnings from foreign currency exchange rate movements, it is impossible to predict or eliminate the total effects of this exposure.
Additionally, in connection with our services that are paid for in multiple currencies, we generally set our foreign currency exchange rates daily, and may face financial exposure if we incorrectly set our foreign currency exchange rates or as a result of fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates between the times that we set our foreign currency exchange rates. Given that we also have foreign currency exchange risk on our assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the functional currency of our subsidiaries, we have an additional foreign currency exchange exposure management program whereby we use foreign currency exchange contracts to offset the impact of foreign currency exchange rate movements on our assets and liabilities. The foreign currency exchange gains and losses on our assets and liabilities are recorded in other income (expense), net, and are offset by the gains and losses on the foreign currency exchange contracts. These foreign currency exchange contracts reduce, but do not entirely eliminate, the impact of foreign currency exchange rate movements on our assets and liabilities.

Financial Results
Net revenues

Due to the diversification of PayPal’s business through strategic partnerships, new products, and acquisitions, in the first quarter of 2018, we updated our definitions of “active accounts” and “total payment volume (TPV)” as described below.

Active Accounts: An active account is an account registered directly with PayPal or a platform access partner that has completed a transaction on our Payments Platform, not including gateway-exclusive transactions, within the past 12 months. The definition of active accounts has been expanded to include payments made or outstanding balances held on our co-branded credit card program. The definition has also been expanded to include accounts from our platform access partners. A platform access partner is a third party whose customers are provided access to PayPal’s Payments Platform through such third party’s login credentials. This expanded definition captures uniquely identifiable accounts for which PayPal receives economic benefits for completed transactions processed on behalf of customers who have established a relationship with PayPal.

Total Payment Volume: The value of payments, net of reversals, successfully completed on our Payments Platform or enabled by PayPal via a partner payment solution, not including gateway-exclusive transactions. The definition of TPV has been expanded to include PayPal’s diversification into new partner payment solutions such as certain tokenized transactions and contextual commerce which expand our opportunities for growth.

The revised definition also captures TPV from our merchant debit card program. Due to their inclusion in TPV, revenues from these transactions were reclassified from “other value added services” to “transaction revenues” with no change to “total net revenues.”

These revisions also impacted previously reported results for other non-financial key performance metrics, including number of payment transactions and payment transactions per active account. Prior period metrics have been revised in this filing to conform to the new definitions.

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Our revenues are classified into the following two categories:
 
Transaction revenues: Net transaction fees charged to merchants and consumers on a transaction basis primarily based on the volume of activity, or TPV, completed on our Payments Platform. Growth in TPV is directly impacted by the number of payment transactions that we enable on our Payments Platform. Payment transactions are the total number of payments, net of payment reversals, successfully completed through our Payments Platform, or enabled by PayPal via a partner payment solution not including gateway-exclusive transactions. We earn additional fees on transactions settled in foreign currencies when we enable cross-border transactions (i.e., transactions where the merchant or consumer are in different countries).
Other value added services: Net revenues derived primarily from revenue earned through partnerships, subscription fees, gateway fees, and other services we provide to our merchants and customers. We also earn revenues from interest and fees earned primarily on our PayPal credit portfolio of loans receivable, gain on sale of participation interest in certain loans and advances, and interest earned on certain PayPal customer account balances.
Our revenues can be significantly impacted by the following:
 
The mix of merchants, products, and services;
The mix between domestic and cross-border transactions;
The geographic region or country in which a transaction occurs; and
The amount of our credit loans receivable outstanding with merchants and consumers.
Net revenues analysis
The components of our net revenue for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016 were as follows:
 
Year Ended December 31,
 
Percent Increase/
(Decrease)
 
2018
 
2017(1)
 
2016(1)
 
2018
 
2017
 
(In millions, except percentages)
Transaction revenues
$
13,709

 
$
11,501

 
$
9,585

 
19
%
 
20
%
Other value added services
1,742

 
1,593

 
1,257

 
9
%
 
27
%
Net revenues
$
15,451

 
$
13,094

 
$
10,842

 
18
%
 
21
%
(1) Amounts in the prior period were reclassified to conform to current period presentation.
Transaction revenues
Transaction revenues increased by $2.2 billion, or 19%, in 2018 compared to 2017, and by $1.9 billion, or 20%, in 2017 compared to 2016. The increase in transaction revenues in 2018 and 2017 was due primarily to the growth in TPV, mainly from our PayPal and Braintree products, and in the number of payment transactions, both of which resulted primarily from an increase in our active accounts. Current year acquisitions did not have a material impact on the growth rate of transaction revenues; however, they contributed approximately 2.9 million new active accounts during the year. Net losses from our foreign currency exchange contracts recognized as a component of transaction revenues in 2018 were $23 million, compared to net gains of $17 million in 2017. Refer to “Note 10—Derivative Instruments” to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information on our foreign currency exposure management program.

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The following table provides a summary of our active accounts, number of payment transactions, TPV and related metrics:
 
Year Ended December 31,
 
Percent Increase/
(Decrease)
 
2018
 
2017(1)
 
2016(1)
 
2018
 
2017
 
(In millions, except percentages)
Active accounts(2)
267

 
229

 
199

 
17
%
 
15
%
Number of payment transactions(3)
9,871

 
7,769

 
6,295

 
27
%
 
23
%
Payment transactions per active account(4)
36.9

 
34.0

 
31.6

 
9
%
 
8
%
TPV(5)
$
578,419

 
$
456,179

 
$
359,928

 
27
%
 
27
%
Percent of cross-border TPV
19
%
 
21
%
 
22
%
 
** 

 
** 

All amounts in tables are rounded to the nearest million except as otherwise noted. As a result, certain amounts may not recalculate using the rounded amounts provided.
(1) Prior period amounts were revised to reflect updated definitions of active accounts and TPV discussed above.
(2) Reflects active accounts as of the end of the applicable period. An active account is an account registered directly with PayPal or a platform access partner that has completed a transaction on our Payments Platform, not including gateway-exclusive transactions, within the past 12 months.
(3) Number of payment transactions are the total number of payments, net of payment reversals, successfully completed on our Payments Platform or enabled by PayPal via a partner payment solution, not including gateway-exclusive transactions.
(4) Number of payment transactions per active account reflects the total number of payment transactions within the previous 12 month period, divided by active accounts at the end of the period.
(5) TPV is the value of payments, net of reversals, successfully completed on our Payments Platform or enabled by PayPal via a partner payment solution, not including gateway-exclusive transactions.
** Not meaningful
Transaction revenues grew more slowly than both TPV and number of payment transactions in 2018 due to a higher proportion of P2P transactions (primarily from our PayPal and Venmo products) from which we earn lower fees and a lower proportion of cross border transactions. Transaction revenues grew more slowly than both TPV and the number of payment transactions in 2017 due primarily to a higher proportion of P2P transactions, primarily from our PayPal and Venmo products. The impact of increases or decreases in prices charged to our customers did not significantly impact transaction revenue growth in 2018 or 2017.

Other value added services

Net revenues from other value added services increased by $149 million, or 9%, in 2018 compared to 2017, and by $336 million, or 27%, in 2017 compared to 2016. Growth in net revenues from other value-added services in 2018 and 2017 was due primarily to interest and fee income earned on our loans receivable portfolio. In 2018, net revenue from other value added services was also positively impacted by growth in interest earned on customer balances. The completion of the sale of our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio in July 2018 resulted in lower interest and fee income in the second half of 2018, partially offset by an increase in revenue share with Synchrony Bank and approximately $109 million of revenue earned from transition servicing activities. Swift revenues contributed approximately nine percentage points and three percentage points to the 2018 and 2017 growth rates, respectively.The total consumer and merchant loans receivable balance, including loans and receivables, held for sale, as of December 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016 was $2.7 billion, $7.8 billion, and $5.7 billion, respectively, which reflected a year-over-year decrease of 66% in 2018 compared to 2017, and an increase of 37% in 2017 compared to 2016. The decline in 2018 was primarily driven by the completion of the sale of U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio.
In November 2017, we reached an agreement to sell our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio to Synchrony Bank to free up balance sheet capacity and cash flow for other uses and mitigate balance sheet risk. Historically, this portfolio was reported as outstanding principal balances, net of any participation interest sold and pro rata allowances, including unamortized deferred origination costs and estimated collectible interest and fees. Upon approval by our Board of Directors of the decision to sell these receivables, the portfolio was reclassified as held for sale, and recorded at the lower of cost or fair value. Due to the designation as held for sale, the associated allowance for this portfolio was reversed, resulting in an increase of approximately $39 million in revenue from other value added services in 2017.


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Following the closing of this transaction in July 2018, Synchrony Bank became the exclusive issuer of the PayPal Credit online consumer financing program in the U.S., and we no longer hold an ownership interest in the receivables generated through the program (other than receivables that have been or are designated to be charged off and are fully reserved). The transaction was accounted for as a true sale, and following the completion of the sale, the receivables are no longer reported on our consolidated financial statements. Subsequent to the sale, we earn a revenue share on the portfolio of consumer receivables owned by Synchrony Bank, which is recorded in net revenues from other value added services. We expect this transaction to negatively impact other value-added services revenue growth for the first two quarters of 2019. The corresponding negative impact on total net revenue growth rate for each of those quarters is expected to be between 6% and 8%, although this estimate is subject to various uncertainties and the actual impact may be different.

Operating Expenses

The following table summarizes our operating expenses and related metrics we use to assess the trend in each:
 
Year Ended December 31,
 
Percent Increase/
(Decrease)
 
2018
 
2017
 
2016
 
2018
 
2017
 
(In millions, except percentages)
Transaction expense
$
5,581

 
$
4,419

 
$
3,346

 
26
 %
 
32
 %
Transaction and loan losses
1,274

 
1,011

 
1,088

 
26
 %
 
(7
)%
Customer support and operations
1,482

 
1,364

 
1,267

 
9
 %
 
8
 %
Sales and marketing
1,313

 
1,128

 
969

 
16
 %
 
16
 %
Product development
1,071

 
953

 
834

 
12
 %
 
14
 %
General and administrative
1,451

 
1,155

 
1,028

 
26
 %
 
12
 %
Depreciation and amortization
776

 
805

 
724

 
(4
)%
 
11
 %
Restructuring and other charges
309

 
132

 

 
134
 %
 
** 

Total operating expenses
$
13,257

 
$
10,967

 
$
9,256

 
21
 %
 
18
 %
Transaction expense rate(1)
0.96
%
 
0.97
%
 
0.93
%
 
 
 
 
Transaction and loan loss rate(2)
0.22
%
 
0.22
%
 
0.30
%
 
 
 
 
(1) Transaction expense rate is calculated by dividing transaction expense by TPV. Prior year rates were revised to reflect updated TPV definition, as discussed above.
(2) Transaction and loan loss rate is calculated by dividing transaction and loan losses by TPV. Prior year rates were revised to reflect updated TPV definition, as discussed above.
** Not Meaningful

Transaction expense

Transaction expense is primarily composed of the costs we incur to accept a customer’s funding source of payment. These costs include fees paid to payment processors and other financial institutions in order to draw funds from a customer’s credit or debit card, bank account, or other funding source they have stored in their digital wallet. Transaction expense also includes fees paid to disbursement partners to enable a transaction. We refer to the allocation of funding sources used by our consumers as our “funding mix.” The cost of funding a transaction with a credit or debit card is generally higher than the cost of funding a transaction from a bank or through internal sources such as a PayPal account balance or PayPal Credit. As we expand the availability and presentation of alternative funding sources to our customers, our funding mix may change, which could increase or decrease our transaction expense rate. The cost of funding a transaction is also impacted by the geographic region or country in which a transaction occurs because we generally pay lower rates for transactions funded with credit cards outside the U.S. than in the U.S.

Transaction expense increased by $1.2 billion, or 26%, in 2018 compared to 2017, and increased by $1.1 billion, or 32%, in 2017 compared to 2016. The increase in transaction expense in 2018 was primarily attributable to an increase in TPV of 27%. The increase in transaction expense in 2017 was primarily attributable to an increase in TPV of 27% and higher assessments charged by payment processors and other financial institutions.

The transaction expense rate in 2018 remained relatively consistent with the transaction expense rate for 2017. The increase in our transaction expense rate in 2017 compared to 2016 was due primarily to higher assessments charged by payment processors and other financial institutions. For the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016, approximately 2% of TPV was funded with PayPal Credit. For the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016, approximately 43%, 43%, and 44% of TPV, respectively, was generated outside of the U.S.


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Transaction and loan losses

Transaction losses include the expense associated with our buyer and seller protection programs, fraud, and chargebacks. Loan losses include the losses associated with our merchant and consumer loans receivable portfolio, except loans and interest receivable, held for sale. Our transaction and loan losses fluctuate depending on many factors, including TPV, macroeconomic conditions, changes to our customer protection programs, the impact of regulatory changes, and the credit quality of loans receivable arising from transactions funded with our credit products for consumers and loans and advances to merchants.

The components of our transaction and loan losses for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016 were as follows:
 
Year Ended December 31,
 
Percent Increase/(Decrease)
 
2018
 
2017
 
2016
 
2018
 
2017
 
(In millions, except percentages)
Transaction losses
$
1,059

 
$
823

 
$
655

 
29
%
 
26
 %
Loan losses
215

 
188

 
433

 
14
%
 
(57
)%
Transaction and loan losses
$
1,274

 
$
1,011

 
$
1,088

 
26
%
 
(7
)%
Transaction loss rate(1)
0.18
%
 
0.18
%
 
0.18
%
 
 
 
 
(1) Transaction loss rate is calculated by dividing transaction losses by TPV. Prior year rates were revised to reflect updated TPV definition, as discussed above.

Transaction and loan losses increased by $263 million, or 26%, in 2018 compared to 2017, and decreased by $77 million, or 7%, in 2017 compared to 2016.

Transaction losses increased by $236 million, or 29%, in 2018 compared to 2017, and increased by $168 million, or 26%, in 2017 compared to 2016, due primarily to higher TPV. Our transaction loss rate remained flat in 2018, 2017, and 2016.

Loan losses increased by $27 million, or 14%, in 2018 compared to 2017 and decreased by $245 million, or 57%, in 2017 compared to 2016. The increase in loan losses in 2018 was primarily due to the increase in our merchant loans and advances receivable balances, partially offset by a decline resulting from the sale of our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio in the third quarter of 2018 and the portfolio's designation as held for sale during the first two quarters of 2018. The decrease in loan losses in 2017 was due primarily to the reversal of approximately $283 million of allowance on loans receivable due to the designation of our U.S. consumer credit portfolio as held for sale.

The consumer loans receivable balance as of December 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016 was $704 million, $326 million, and $5.1 billion, respectively, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 116% from 2017 to 2018 and a decrease of 94% from 2016 to 2017. The increase in consumer loan receivables in 2018 was due to growth in international markets. Approximately 93% of our consumer loans receivables outstanding as of December 31 2018 and December 31, 2017 were due from consumers in the U.K. The decrease in consumer loan receivables in 2017 was due to the designation of U.S. consumer credit portfolio as held for sale.

The following table provides information regarding the credit quality of our consumer loans and interest receivable balance:
 
 
December 31,
 
2018
 
2017
Percent of consumer loans and interest receivables current
94.9
%
 
96.0
%
Percent of consumer loans and interest receivables > 90 days outstanding(1)
1.7
%
 
1.2
%
Net charge off rate(2)
3.1
%
 
3.9
%
(1) Represents percentage of balances which are 90 days past the billing date to the consumer.
(2) Net charge off rate is the annual ratio of net credit losses on consumer loans receivables as a percentage of the average daily amount of consumer loans and interest receivables balance during the year.


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We offer business financing solutions to certain small- and medium-sized merchants. Total merchant loans, advances, and interest and fees receivable outstanding as of December 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016, net of participation interest sold, were $1.9 billion, $1.0 billion, and $558 million, respectively, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 85% from 2017 to 2018 and an increase of 81% from 2016 to 2017. The increase in merchant receivables in 2018 was due to growth in our PayPal Business Loan (“PPBL”) portfolio and an increase in the availability of our PayPal Working Capital (“PPWC”) product. Approximately 87% and 10% of our merchant receivables outstanding as of December 31 2018 were due from merchants in the U.S. and U.K. as compared to 83% and 13% as of December 31, 2017, respectively. The increase in merchant receivables in 2017 was due to the acquisition of Swift, which included their pre-existing loan receivables portfolio, and an increase in the availability of our PPWC product domestically and internationally.

The following table provides information regarding the credit quality of our merchant receivables:
 
December 31,
 
2018(1)
 
2017
Merchant loans and advances
 
 
 
Percent of merchant receivables within original expected or contractual repayment period
91.0
%
 
87.4
%
Percent of merchant receivables > 90 days outstanding after the end of original expected or contractual repayment period
3.7
%
 
5.5
%
(1) Excludes $30 million of loan receivables related to iZettle merchant receivables.

Modifications to the acceptable risk parameters of our PayPal credit products for the periods presented did not have a material impact on our loans and interest receivables. For additional information, see “Note 11—Loans and Interest Receivable” in the notes to the consolidated financial statements, and “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the caption—“Some of our credit products expose us to additional risks.” included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Customer support and operations

Customer support and operations expenses include costs incurred to provide 24-hour call support to our customers, our site operations, and other infrastructure costs incurred to support our Payments Platform, costs to support our trust and security programs protecting our merchants and consumers, and other costs incurred related to the delivery of our products.

Customer support and operations costs increased $118 million, or 9%, in 2018 compared to 2017 and increased $97 million, or 8%, in 2017 compared to 2016. The increase in 2018 was primarily attributable to an increase in employee-related expenses and platform infrastructure expenses to support the growth in our active accounts and the number of payment transactions occurring on our Payments Platform, partially offset by a decrease in contractor and consulting expenses. Our acquisitions completed in 2018 and 2017 collectively contributed approximately one percentage point to the growth rate in 2018. The increase in 2017 was due primarily to an increase in network infrastructure expenses and contractor and employee related expenses to support the growth in our active accounts and the number of payment transactions occurring on our Payments Platform.

Sales and marketing

Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of customer acquisition, business development, advertising, marketing programs, and employee compensation and contractor costs to support these programs.

Sales and marketing expenses increased $185 million, or 16%, in 2018 compared to 2017 and increased $159 million, or 16%, in 2017 compared to 2016. The increase in 2018 and 2017 was due primarily to higher employee-related expense and higher spend on external marketing campaigns. Our acquisitions completed in 2018 and 2017 collectively contributed approximately seven percentage points to the growth rate in 2018.

Product development

Product development expenses consist primarily of employee compensation and contractor costs that are incurred in connection with the development of our Payments Platform, new products, and the improvement of our existing products. Product development expenses exclude software and website development costs that are capitalized. The amortization of developed technology is included in depreciation and amortization expense.

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Product development expenses increased $118 million, or 12%, in 2018 compared to 2017 and increased $119 million, or 14%, in 2017 compared to 2016. The increase in 2018 and 2017 was due primarily to an increase in employee-related expenses. The increase in 2018 was also attributable to an increase in contractor and consulting expenses. Our acquisitions completed in 2018 and 2017 collectively contributed approximately two percentage points to the growth rate in 2018.
General and administrative
General and administrative expenses consist primarily of costs incurred to provide support to our business, including legal, human resources, finance, risk and compliance, executive, and other support operations. Our legal expenses, including those related to ongoing legal and regulatory proceedings, settlements, judgments, and fines, may fluctuate substantially from period to period.

General and administrative expenses increased $296 million, or 26%, in 2018 compared to 2017 and increased $127 million, or 12%, in 2017 compared to 2016. The increase in 2018 was due primarily to an increase in employee-related expenses, professional service expenses, and facilities cost. Additional expenses incurred to support our mergers and acquisitions and the sale of our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio also contributed to the growth rate in 2018. Our acquisitions completed in 2018 and 2017 collectively contributed approximately five percentage points to the growth rate in 2018. The increase in 2017 was due primarily to an increase in employee-related expenses and professional service expenses, and continued investments in compliance programs.

Depreciation and amortization

The primary components of our depreciation and amortization expenses include the depreciation and amortization of software, including the amortization of capitalized software and website development costs, depreciation of equipment used to deliver our services, and amortization of acquired intangible assets.

Depreciation and amortization expenses decreased $29 million, or 4%, in 2018 compared to 2017, and increased $81 million, or 11%, in 2017 compared to 2016. The decrease in 2018 was primarily attributable to fully depreciated assets partially offset by an increase in amortization of acquired intangibles due to acquisitions completed in 2018 and 2017, which contributed seven percentage points to the growth rate. The increase in 2017 was due primarily to additional depreciation expenses associated with investments in our technology platform. Additionally, the increase in depreciation and amortization in 2017 was partially attributable to an impairment charge of $30 million related to a portion of our acquired TIO customer-related intangible assets. For additional information, see “Note 5—Goodwill and Intangible Assets” to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Restructuring and other charges

Restructuring and other charges primarily consist of restructuring expenses and cost adjustments related to our loans and receivables, held for sale portfolio. Restructuring and other charges increased by $177 million in 2018 compared to 2017 due to an increase of $152 million in cost adjustments, which were primarily driven by charge-offs against loans and interest receivables, held for sale portfolio, prior to its sale in July 2018, and a net loss of $40 million incurred at the conclusion of this sale. Restructuring and other charges increased by $132 million in 2017 compared to 2016 due to restructuring charges of $40 million and cost adjustments of $92 million, which were driven by charge-offs against our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio subsequent to its designation as held for sale in November 2017.

In the first quarter of 2018 and 2017, management approved strategic reductions of the existing global workforce, which resulted in restructuring charges of $25 million and $40 million, respectively. The reduction approved in the first quarter of 2018 also included restructuring charges related to the decision to wind down TIO operations. We incurred employee and severance benefits expenses under both the 2018 and 2017 strategic reductions, which were substantially completed by the end of 2018 and 2017, respectively. No restructuring expenses were recognized in 2016.

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Other income (expense), net

Other income (expense), net increased $109 million, or 149%, in 2018 compared to 2017, and increased $28 million, or 62%, in 2017 compared to 2016. The increase in 2018 was primarily driven by net unrealized gains on equity investments due to the favorable impact of observable price changes, which contributed $86 million (including $55 million in the fourth quarter). Additionally, the increase was attributable to growth in interest income of $83 million due to higher interest rates and increase in corporate cash, partially offset by an increase of $70 million in interest expense associated with higher amounts of notes payable outstanding under our credit agreements. The increase in 2017 was primarily driven by an increase in interest income.

Income tax expense

On December 22, 2017, the U.S. government enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Tax Act”). The Tax Act included significant changes to the U.S. corporate income tax system including: a federal corporate rate reduction from 35% to 21%; limitations on the deductibility of interest expense and executive compensation; creation of new minimum taxes such as the base erosion anti-abuse tax (“BEAT”) and Global Intangible Low Taxed Income (“GILTI”) tax; and the transition of U.S. international taxation from a worldwide tax system to a modified territorial tax system, which resulted in a one time U.S. tax liability on those earnings which have not previously been repatriated to the U.S. (the “Transition Tax”).

In connection with our initial analysis of the impact of the Tax Act, we recorded a provisional estimate of discrete net tax expense of $180 million for the period ended December 31, 2017. This discrete expense consisted of provisional estimates of $1,468 million net expense for the Transition Tax payable in installments over eight years, $1,295 million net benefit for the decrease in our deferred tax liability on unremitted foreign earnings, and $7 million net expense for remeasurement of our deferred tax assets/liabilities for the corporate rate reduction and changes in our valuation allowance.

During the year ended December 31, 2018, we completed our accounting for the income tax effects of the Tax Act. We recognized additional discrete net tax expense of $20 million to the provisional amounts recorded at December 31, 2017 for the enactment-date effects of the Tax Act, for a total of $200 million of discrete net tax expense. The $200 million of total discrete net expense consists of $1,490 million of net federal and state Transition Tax, the majority of which is payable in installments over eight years, $1,295 million net benefit for the decrease in our deferred tax liability on unremitted foreign earnings, and $5 million net expense for remeasurement of our deferred tax assets and liabilities for the corporate rate reduction and changes in our valuation allowance. We elected to account for GILTI as a current-period expense when incurred. Legislation and clarifying guidance is expected to continue to be issued by the U.S. Treasury and various states in 2019, which could have a material adverse impact on the value of our U.S. deferred tax assets, result in significant changes to currently computed income tax liabilities for past and current tax periods, and increase our future U.S. tax expense.

Our effective tax rate was 13% in 2018, 18% in 2017, and 14% in 2016. The decrease in our effective tax rate in 2018 was primarily due to a favorable shift in earnings and discrete net tax expense recorded for U.S. tax reform in 2017, partially offset by reduced tax benefits for U.S. expenses in 2018 due to the lower U.S. tax rate. The increase in our effective tax rate in 2017 was primarily due to discrete net tax expense recorded for U.S. tax reform, partially offset by the adoption of the new stock-based compensation accounting standard in 2017. See “Note 16—Income Taxes” to the consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for more information on our effective tax rate.

Non-GAAP Financial Information

Non-GAAP financial information is defined as a numerical measure of a company’s performance that excludes or includes amounts that create differences between the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). Pursuant to the requirements of Regulation S-K, the following portion of this “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” includes a reconciliation of certain non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. The presentation of non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP.

We present non-GAAP financial measures to enhance an investor’s evaluation of our operating results and to facilitate meaningful comparisons of our results between periods. Management uses these non-GAAP financial measures to, among other things: evaluate our operations, for internal planning and forecasting purposes, and in the calculation of performance-based compensation.

We exclude the following items from non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP net income per diluted share, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP operating margin and non-GAAP effective tax rate:


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Table of Contents

Stock-based compensation expense and related employer payroll taxes. This consists of expenses for equity awards under our equity incentive plans. We exclude stock-based compensation expense from our non-GAAP measures primarily because they are non-cash expenses. The related employer payroll taxes are dependent on our stock price and the timing and size of exercises and vesting of equity awards, over which management has limited to no control, and as such management does not believe it correlates to the operation of our business.
Amortization or impairment of acquired intangible assets, impairment of goodwill, and transaction expenses from the acquisition or disposal of a business. We incur amortization or impairment of acquired intangible assets and goodwill in connection with acquisitions and may incur significant gains or losses or transactional expenses from the acquisition or disposal of a business and therefore exclude these amounts from our non-GAAP measures. We exclude these items because management does not believe they are reflective of our ongoing operating results.
Restructuring. These consist of expenses for employee severance and other exit and disposal costs. We exclude restructuring charges primarily because management does not believe they are reflective of our ongoing operating results.
Certain other significant gains, losses, benefits, or charges that are not indicative of our core operating results. These are significant gains, losses, benefits, or charges during a period that are the result of isolated events or transactions which have not occurred frequently in the past and are not expected to occur regularly in the future. We exclude these amounts from our non-GAAP results because management does not believe they are indicative of our ongoing operating results.
Tax effect of non-GAAP adjustments. This adjustment is made to present stock-based compensation and the other amounts described above on an after-tax basis consistent with the presentation of non-GAAP net income.
The following tables provide reconciliations of our consolidated non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016:
 
Year Ended December 31,
 
2018
 
2017
 
2016
 
(In millions, except percentages)
GAAP net revenues
$
15,451

 
$
13,094

 
$
10,842

Other(1)

 
(39
)
 

Non-GAAP net revenues
$
15,451

 
$
13,055

 
$
10,842

(1) Elimination of allowance on interest receivable due to the U.S. consumer credit portfolio designation as held for sale.  
 
Year Ended December 31,
 
2018

2017

2016
 
(In millions, except percentages)
GAAP operating income
$
2,194


$
2,127


$
1,586

Stock-based compensation expense and related employer payroll taxes
920


761


455

Amortization of acquired intangible assets(1)
146


129


133

Restructuring
25


40



Other(2)
40


(302
)


Acquisition related transaction expense
24





Total non-GAAP operating income adjustments
1,155


628


588

Non-GAAP operating income
$
3,349


$
2,755


$
2,174

Non-GAAP operating margin
22
%

21
%

20
%
(1) Includes $30 million impairment related to a portion of acquired TIO customer-related intangible assets in 2017.
(2) Includes net loss ($40 million) related to the sale of our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio for the year ended December 31, 2018. Includes elimination of allowance on loans receivable ($283 million), allowance on interest receivable ($39 million) due to the designation of the U.S. consumer credit portfolio as held for sale, certain fees associated with the sale of the portfolio ($5 million), and impairment of an investment in an intellectual property fund ($15 million) for the year ended December 31, 2017.



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Year Ended December 31,
 
2018
 
2017
 
2016
 
(In millions, except percentages)
GAAP income before income taxes
$
2,376

 
$
2,200

 
$
1,631

GAAP income tax expense
319

 
405

 
230

GAAP net income
2,057

 
1,795

 
1,401

Non-GAAP adjustments to net income:
 
 
 
 
 
Non-GAAP operating income adjustments (see table above)
$
1,155

 
$
628

 
$
588

Other(1)
43

 
224

 

Tax effect of non-GAAP adjustments
(342
)
 
(329
)
 
(164
)
Non-GAAP net income
$
2,913

 
$
2,318

 
$
1,825

 
 
 
 
 
 
GAAP income tax expense
$
319

 
$
405

 
$
230

Non-GAAP tax adjustments
299

 
105

 
164

Non-GAAP income tax expense
$
618

 
$
510

 
$
394

 
 
 
 
 
 
GAAP net income per diluted share
$
1.71

 
$
1.47

 
$
1.15

Non-GAAP net income per diluted share
$
2.42

 
$
1.90

 
$
1.50

Shares used in GAAP diluted share calculation
1,203

 
1,221

 
1,218

Shares used in non-GAAP diluted share calculation
1,203

 
1,221

 
1,218

 
 
 
 
 
 
GAAP effective tax rate
13
%
 
18
 %
 
14
%
Tax effect of non-GAAP adjustments to net income
5
%
 
 %
 
4
%
Non-GAAP effective tax rate
18
%
 
18
 %
 
18
%
(1) Years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017 include tax expense related to the Tax Act ($20 million and $180 million, respectively) and intra-entity transfer of intellectual property ($23 million and $44 million, respectively).  


In addition to the non-GAAP measures discussed above, we also use free cash flow to assess our performance. Free cash flow represents cash flows from operating activities less purchases of property and equipment. We consider free cash flow to be a liquidity measure that provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated by the business after the purchases of property and equipment, and investments in our Payments Platform, which can then be used to, among other things, invest in our business, make strategic acquisitions, and repurchase stock. A limitation of the utility of free cash flow as a measure of financial performance is that it does not represent the total increase or decrease in our cash balance for the period. A reconciliation of free cash flow to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure is presented below:
 
Year Ended December 31,
 
2018
 
2017
 
2016
 
(In millions)
Net cash provided by operating activities(1)
$
5,483

 
$
2,531

 
$
3,158

Less: Purchases of property and equipment
(823
)
 
(667
)
 
(669
)
Free cash flow(1)
$
4,660

 
$
1,864

 
$
2,489

(1) The year ended December 31, 2018 includes a positive impact of approximately $1.4 billion due to the completion of the sale of our US consumer credit receivables portfolio in July 2018. The year ended December 31, 2017 includes a negative impact of approximately $1.3 billion due to the change in presentation of the U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio subsequent to its designation as held for sale in November 2017.


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Table of Contents

Liquidity and Capital Resources

We require liquidity and access to capital to fund our global operations, including customer protection programs, our credit products, capital expenditures, investments in our business, potential acquisitions, working capital, and other cash needs. The following table summarizes the cash, cash equivalents, and investments as of December 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017:
 
Year Ended December 31,
 
2018
 
2017
 
(In millions)
Cash, cash equivalents, and investments(1)(2)
$
9,710

 
$
7,487

(1) Excludes assets related to customer accounts of $20.1 billion and $18.2 billion at December 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017, respectively.
(2) Excludes total restricted cash of $77 million and $81 million at December 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017, respectively, and equity investments of $293 million and $88 million as of December 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017, respectively.

Foreign Cash, Cash Equivalents and Investments

Cash, cash equivalents and investments held by our foreign subsidiaries were $8.7 billion as of December 31, 2018 and $6.1 billion at December 31, 2017, or 89% and 81% of our total cash, cash equivalents, and investments as of those respective dates. At December 31, 2018, all of our cash, cash equivalents, and investments held by foreign subsidiaries were subject to U.S. taxation under Subpart F, GILTI, or the one-time Transition Tax as further discussed in “Note 16—Income Taxes” to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Subsequent repatriations will not be taxable from a U.S. federal tax perspective, but may be subject to state or foreign withholding tax. A significant aspect of our global cash management activities involves meeting our customers' requirements to access their cash while simultaneously meeting our regulatory financial ratios commitments in various jurisdictions. Our global cash balances are required not only to provide operational liquidity to our businesses, but also to support our global regulatory requirements across our regulated subsidiaries. As such, not all of our cash is available for general corporate purposes.

Credit Facilities

In the fourth quarter of 2017, we entered into a credit agreement (“2017 Credit Agreement”) that provided for an unsecured $3.0 billion, 364-day delayed-draw term loan credit facility, which was available in up to three borrowings. In the fourth quarter of 2018, we entered into an amended credit agreement (“Amended Credit Agreement”) which amends and restates in its entirety the 2017 Credit Agreement. The Amended Credit Agreement provides for an unsecured $5.0 billion, 364-day delayed-draw term loan credit facility, which is available in up to four separate borrowings. Funds borrowed under the Amended Credit Agreement may be used to repurchase equity securities from shareholders, to repay intercompany debt, and for other general corporate purposes of the Company and our subsidiaries. Amounts available under the Amended Credit Agreement may be borrowed until April 2019, subject to customary borrowing conditions, and the Amended Credit Agreement will terminate in November 2019.

In the first quarter of 2018, we effected two drawdowns aggregating to $2.0 billion under the 2017 Credit Agreement, which were in addition to the outstanding balance of $1.0 billion as of December 31, 2017. In the second quarter of 2018, we repaid $1.0 billion of the borrowings outstanding under the 2017 Credit Agreement. The borrowings outstanding as of December 31, 2018 and 2017 bore interest at LIBOR of one month plus a margin of 1.125% resulting in a weighted average interest rate of 3.34% and 2.78%, respectively. As of December 31, 2018, $2.0 billion was outstanding under the Amended Credit Agreement. Accordingly, at December 31, 2018, $3.0 billion of borrowing capacity was available in up to four drawdowns for the purposes permitted by the Amended Credit Agreement, subject to customary conditions to borrowing.

In 2015, we entered into a credit agreement (“2015 Credit Agreement” and, collectively with the Amended Credit Agreement, the “Credit Agreements”) that provides for an unsecured $2.0 billion, five-year revolving credit facility that includes a $150 million letter of credit sub-facility and a $150 million swingline sub-facility, with available borrowings under the revolving credit facility reduced by the amount of any letters of credit and swingline borrowings outstanding from time to time. We may, subject to the agreement of the applicable lenders, increase the commitments under the revolving credit facility by up to $500 million. Funds borrowed under the 2015 Credit Agreement may be used for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes. The 2015 Credit Agreement will terminate in July 2020.

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During the third quarter of 2017, we drew down $800 million under the 2015 Credit Agreement, which was repaid during the fourth quarter of 2017. The borrowing bore interest at LIBOR of one month plus a margin of 1.125% resulting in a weighted-average interest rate of 2.36%. As of December 31, 2018, no borrowings or letters of credit were outstanding under the 2015 Credit Agreement. Accordingly, at December 31, 2018, $2.0 billion of borrowing capacity was available for the purposes permitted by the 2015 Credit Agreement, subject to customary conditions to borrowing.

We also maintain uncommitted credit facilities in various regions throughout the world, with borrowing capacity of approximately $300 million in the aggregate. Interest rate terms for these facilities vary by region and reflect prevailing market rates for companies with strong credit ratings. As of December 31, 2018, no amounts were outstanding under these facilities, and therefore, approximately $300 million of borrowing capacity was available, subject to customary conditions to borrowing.

For additional information regarding the terms of our credit facilities, refer to “Note 12—Notes Payable” to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We have a cash pooling arrangement with a financial institution for cash management purposes. The arrangement allows for cash withdrawals from the financial institution based upon our aggregate operating cash balances held within the financial institution (“Aggregate Cash Deposits”). The arrangement also allows us to withdraw amounts exceeding the Aggregate Cash Deposits up to an agreed-upon limit. The net balance of the withdrawals and the Aggregate Cash Deposits are used by the financial institution as a basis for calculating our net interest expense or income under these arrangements. As of December 31, 2018, we had a total of $4.3 billion in cash withdrawals offsetting our $4.3 billion in Aggregate Cash Deposits held within the financial institution under the cash pooling arrangement.

Liquidity for Credit Portfolio Growth

Growth in the portfolio of loan receivables increases our liquidity needs and any failure to meet those liquidity needs could adversely affect our business. We continue to evaluate partnerships and third party sources of funding of our credit portfolio. In June 2018, the Luxembourg Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (the “CSSF”) agreed that PayPal’s management may designate up to 35% of European customer balances held in our Luxembourg banking subsidiary to be used to extend credit for European and U.S. credit activities. As of December 31, 2018, the cumulative amount approved by management to be designated for credit activities aggregated to $1.5 billion and represented approximately 26% of European customer balances potentially available for corporate use by us at that date as determined by applying financial regulations maintained by the CSSF. No additional amount has been designated for corporate usage by management during the year ended December 31, 2018. We may periodically seek to designate additional amounts of customer balances, if necessary, based on utilization of the approved funds and anticipated credit funding requirements. Our objective is to expand the availability of our credit products with capital from external sources, although there can be no assurance that we will be successful in achieving that goal. Under certain exceptional circumstances, corporate liquidity could be called upon to meet our obligations related to our European customer balances.

In November 2017, we reached an agreement to sell our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio to Synchrony Bank. Historically, this portfolio was reported as outstanding principal balances, net of any participation interest sold and pro rata allowances including, unamortized deferred origination costs and estimated collectible interest and fees. In July 2018, we completed the transaction for total consideration of $6.9 billion, which includes cash consideration of $6.5 billion and a long-term receivable in the amount of $426 million, which was recorded at that time at its present value of $261 million. Following the closing of this transaction, Synchrony Bank became the exclusive issuer of the PayPal credit online consumer financing program in the U.S., and we no longer hold an ownership interest in the receivables generated through the program (other than charged off or designated to be charged off receivables).

Credit Ratings

As of December 31, 2018, we continue to be rated investment grade by Standard and Poor's Financial Services, LLC and Fitch Ratings, Inc. We expect that these credit rating agencies will continue to monitor our performance, including our capital structure and results of operations. Our goal is to be rated investment grade, but as circumstances change, there are factors that could result in our credit ratings being downgraded or put on a watch list for possible downgrading. If that were to occur, it could increase our borrowing rates, including the interest rate on loans under the Credit Agreements.


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Risk of Loss

The risk of losses from our buyer and seller protection programs are specific to individual customers, merchants and transactions, and may also be impacted by regional variations in, and changes or modifications to, the programs, including as a result of changes in regulatory requirements. For the periods presented in these consolidated financial statements included in this report, our transaction loss rates, calculated by dividing transaction loss by TPV, was 0.18% of TPV. Historical trends may not be an indication of future results.

Acquisitions and Stock Repurchases

In July 2018, we completed our acquisition of Simility for approximately $107 million in cash. We acquired Simility to enhance our ability to deliver fraud prevention and risk management solutions to merchants globally.

In September 2018, we completed our acquisition of iZettle for approximately $2.1 billion in cash (net of cash acquired of $103 million) and $22 million in equity. We acquired iZettle to expand our in-store presence and strengthen our Payments Platform to help small businesses around the world grow and thrive in an omnichannel retail environment.

In November 2018, we completed our acquisition of Hyperwallet for approximately $399 million in cash. We acquired Hyperwallet to enhance our payout capabilities and improve our ability to provide an integrated suite of payment solutions to ecommerce platforms and marketplaces around the world.

During the year ended December 31, 2018, we repurchased approximately $2.5 billion of our common stock through open market repurchases and approximately $1.0 billion pursuant to an accelerated share repurchase agreement under our stock repurchase programs. As of December 31, 2018, a total of approximately $11.5 billion remained available for future repurchases of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs. During the year ended December 31, 2017, we repurchased approximately $1.0 billion of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs. As of December 31, 2017, a total of approximately $5.0 billion remained available for future repurchases of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs. Our programs are intended to offset the impact of dilution from our equity compensation programs and, subject to market conditions and other factors, may also be used to make opportunistic repurchases of our common stock to reduce outstanding share count. Any share repurchases under our stock repurchase programs may be made through open market transactions, block trades, privately negotiated transactions including accelerated share repurchase agreements or other means at times and in such amounts as management deems appropriate, and will be funded from cash from operations or other financing alternatives. Moreover, any stock repurchases are subject to market conditions and other uncertainties and we cannot predict if or when any stock repurchases will be made. We may terminate our stock repurchase programs at any time without notice.

Other Considerations

Our liquidity, access to capital, and borrowing costs could be adversely impacted by declines in our credit rating, our financial performance and global credit market conditions, as well as a broad range of other factors. In addition, our liquidity, access to capital, and borrowing costs could also be negatively impacted by the outcome of any of the legal or regulatory proceedings to which we are a party. See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Risk Factors That May Affect Our Business, Results of Operations and Financial Condition” and “Note 13—Commitments and Contingencies” to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional discussion of these and other risks facing our business.

We believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents, and investments, cash expected to be generated from operations, and our expected access to capital markets, together with potential external funding through third party sources, will be sufficient to fund our operating activities, anticipated capital expenditures, and our credit products for the foreseeable future. Depending on market conditions, we may from time to time issue debt, including in private or public offerings, to fund our operating activities, finance acquisitions, repurchase shares under our share repurchase programs, or reduce our cost of capital.

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Cash Flows

The following table summarizes our consolidated statements of cash flows:
 
Year Ended December 31,
 
2018
 
2017
 
2016
 
(In millions)
Net cash provided by (used in):
 
 
 
 
 
Operating activities
$
5,483

 
$
2,531

 
$
3,158

Investing activities
840

 
(4,485
)
 
(5,904
)
Financing activities
(1,262
)
 
4,084

 
2,038

Effect of exchange rates on cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash
(113
)
 
36

 

Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash
$
4,948

 
$
2,166

 
$
(708
)

Operating Activities

Cash flows from operating activities includes net income adjusted for certain non-cash expenses, timing differences between expenses recognized for provision for transaction and loan losses and actual cash transaction losses incurred, and changes in other assets and liabilities. Significant non-cash expenses for the period include depreciation and amortization and stock-based compensation. The cash impact from actual transaction losses incurred during a period is reflected as a negative impact to changes in other assets and liabilities in cash from operating activities. The expenses recognized during the period for provision for loan losses are estimates of probable incurred losses on our consumer and merchant credit products (excluding the U.S. consumer credit portfolio from and after November 2017). Actual charge-offs of receivables related to our consumer and merchant credit products (excluding the U.S. consumer credit portfolio from and after November 2017) have no impact on cash from operating activities.

We generated cash from operating activities of $5.5 billion in 2018 primarily due to operating income of approximately $2.2 billion and the positive impact of $1.4 billion of changes in the loans and interest receivable, held for sale, net following the sale of our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio. Adjustments for non-cash expenses of depreciation and amortization and stock-based compensation were approximately $1.6 billion during 2018. Adjustments for non-cash expenses related to the provision for transaction and loan losses were approximately $1.3 billion and cost basis adjustments to loans and interest receivable held for sale were $244 million during 2018. The cash generated from operating activities was negatively impacted by changes in other assets and liabilities of $708 million, primarily related to actual cash transaction losses incurred during the period.

We generated cash from operating activities of $2.5 billion in 2017 due primarily to operating income of approximately $2.1 billion. Adjustments for non-cash expenses of depreciation and amortization and stock-based compensation were approximately $1.5 billion during 2017. Adjustments for non-cash expenses related to the provision for transaction and loan losses were approximately $1.0 billion during 2017. The cash generated from operating activities was negatively impacted by adjustments for non-cash expenses related to deferred income taxes of approximately $1.3 billion during 2017. The cash generated from operating activities was also negatively impacted by changes in working capital primarily related to loans and interest receivable held for sale, net of $1.3 billion due to changes in the presentation of originations and collections on loans within the U.S. consumer credit portfolio subsequent to its designation as held for sale in November 2017, which were presented in operating activities instead of investing activities, offset by changes in other assets and liabilities of $634 million. Collections on the U.S. consumer credit portfolio for originations that occurred prior to November 2017 will continue to be reflected in investing activities.

We generated cash from operating activities of $3.2 billion in 2016 due primarily to operating income of approximately $1.6 billion. Adjustments for non-cash expenses of depreciation and amortization and stock-based compensation (including excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation) were approximately $1.1 billion during 2016. Adjustments for non-cash expenses related to the provision for transaction and loan losses were approximately $1.1 billion during 2016. The cash generated from operating activities was negatively impacted by changes in working capital primarily related to transaction loss allowance for cash losses, net.

Cash paid for income taxes in 2018, 2017, and 2016 was $328 million, $117 million, and $48 million, respectively.

Investing Activities

Cash flows from investing activities includes purchases, maturities and sales of investments, cash paid for acquisitions, purchases and sales of property and equipment, changes in principal loans receivable, and funds receivable.

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We generated cash from investing activities of $840 million in 2018 due primarily to maturities and sales of investments of $21.9 billion, changes in principal loans receivable, net of $3.1 billion, and changes in funds receivable from customers of $1.1 billion. These cash inflows were offset by purchases of investments of $22.4 billion, acquisitions of $2.1 billion (net of cash and restricted cash acquired), and purchases of property and equipment of $823 million.

The net cash used in investing activities of $4.5 billion in 2017 was due primarily to purchases of investments of $19.4 billion, an increase in funds receivable of $1.6 billion (including the reclassification of $700 million of European customer balances held in our Luxembourg banking subsidiary as cash and cash equivalents), changes in principal loans receivable portfolio (net of collections) originated through our consumer and merchant credit products (excluding originations and collections pertaining to the U.S. consumer credit portfolio from and after November 2017 which are presented in operating activities), of $920 million, acquisitions, net of cash acquired of $323 million, and purchases of property and equipment of $667 million. These net cash outflows were offset by maturities and sales of investments of $18.4 billion. Collections on the U.S. consumer credit portfolio for originations that occurred prior to November 2017 will continue to be reflected in investing activities.

The net cash used in investing activities of $5.9 billion in 2016 was due primarily to purchases of investments of $21.0 billion, increases in our loan receivable portfolio (net of collections) originated through our PayPal credit products of $1.5 billion, purchases of property and equipment of $669 million and net increases in funds receivable of $1.1 billion, including the reclassification of $800 million of European customer balances held in our Luxembourg banking subsidiary as cash and cash equivalents. These net cash outflows were offset by maturities and sales of investments of $18.4 billion.
Financing Activities

Cash flows from financing activities includes proceeds from issuance of common stock, purchases of treasury stock, tax withholdings related to net share settlements of equity awards, borrowings and repayments under financing arrangements, funds payable and amounts due to customers, and excess tax benefits from stock based compensation (for periods prior to 2017).

The net cash used in financing activities of $1.3 billion in 2018 was due primarily to the repurchase of $3.5 billion of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs, repayments of borrowings under financing arrangements of $1.1 billion, and tax withholdings related to net share settlement of equity awards of $419 million, partially offset by cash inflows from borrowings under financing arrangements of $2.1 billion and changes in funds payable and amounts due to customers of $1.6 billion.

The net cash provided by financing activities of $4.1 billion in 2017 was due primarily to increases in funds payable and amounts due to customers of $4.3 billion and borrowings of $1.8 billion. These cash inflows were partially offset by repayments of borrowings of $980 million (including a loan of $170 million assumed in connection with our acquisition of Swift), the repurchase of $1.0 billion of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs, and tax withholdings related to net share settlement of equity awards of $166 million.
 
The net cash provided by financing activities of $2.0 billion in 2016 was due primarily to increases in funds payable and amounts due to customers of $3.0 billion, offset in part by the repurchase of $995 million of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs.

Free Cash Flow

We define free cash flow as cash flows from operating activities less purchases of property and equipment.

Free cash flow was $4.7 billion in 2018, an increase of $2.8 billion from 2017. The increase in free cash flow during the period was due to an increase in cash generated from operating activities of $3.0 billion, which was primarily impacted by changes in the loans and interest receivable held for sale, net, due to the completion of the sale of that portfolio, partially offset by purchases of property and equipment, which were $156 million higher compared to the prior year. Free cash flow generated during 2018 was used for repurchasing our common stock under our stock repurchase programs, funding our credit portfolio, acquisitions, and general business purposes.

Free cash flow was $1.9 billion in 2017, a decrease of $625 million from 2016. The decrease in free cash flow during the period was primarily due to lower cash generated from operating activities of $627 million, which was impacted by the change in presentation from investing activities to operating activities of originations and collections on the U.S. consumer credit portfolio subsequent to its designation as held for sale in November 2017. Free cash flow generated during 2017 was used for repurchasing our common stock under our stock repurchase programs, funding our credit portfolio, acquisitions, and general business purposes.

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Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure. See “Non-GAAP Financial Information” for a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.

Effect of Exchange Rates on Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Restricted Cash

We had a negative effect of currency exchange rates on cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash during 2018 of $113 million, due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against certain foreign currencies, primarily the Australian dollar and to a lesser extent, the Euro. The positive effect of currency exchange rates on cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash during 2017 of $36 million was due to the weakening of the U.S. dollar against certain foreign currencies, primarily the Euro. Currency exchange rates did not have a material impact on cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash in 2016.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

As of December 31, 2018 and 2017, we had no off-balance sheet arrangements that have, or are reasonably likely to have, a current or future material effect on our consolidated financial condition, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures, or capital resources.

Future Liquidity and Obligations

As of December 31, 2018, approximately $1.8 billion of unused credit was available to PayPal Credit account holders compared to $26.4 billion of unused credit as of December 31, 2017. While this amount represents the total unused credit available, we have not experienced, and do not anticipate, that all our PayPal Credit account holders will access their entire available credit at any given point in time. In addition, the individual lines of credit that make up this unused credit are subject to periodic review and termination based on, among other things, account usage and customer creditworthiness. The decrease in unused credit in 2018 as compared to 2017 was due to the sale of our U.S. consumer credit portfolio.

Prior to the completion of the sale of our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio in July 2018, when a consumer funded a purchase in the U.S. using a PayPal credit product issued by a chartered financial institution, the chartered financial institution extended credit to the consumer, funded the extension of credit at the point of sale, and advanced funds to the merchant. We purchased the receivables related to the consumer loans extended by the chartered financial institution and, as a result of such purchase, bore the risk of loss in the event of loan defaults. Although the chartered financial institution continued to own each customer account, we owned the related receivable (excluding participation interests sold) and were responsible for all servicing functions related to the account. Subsequent to the completion of the sale of our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio in July 2018, we no longer purchase the receivables related to U.S. consumer loans extended by the chartered financial institution.

We have certain fixed contractual obligations and commitments that include future estimated payments for general operating purposes. Changes in our business needs, contractual cancellation provisions, fluctuating interest rates, and other factors may result in actual payments differing from the estimates. We cannot provide certainty regarding the timing and amounts of these payments. The following table summarizes our obligations as of December 31, 2018 that are expected to impact liquidity and cash flow in future periods. We believe we will be able to fund these obligations through our existing cash and investment portfolio and cash expected to be generated from operations. 
 
Purchase
Obligations
 
Operating
Leases
 
Transition Tax
 
Total
Payments Due During the Year Ending December 31,
(In millions)
2019
$
320

 
$
124

 
$
39

 
$
483

2020
78

 
111

 
114

 
303

2021
11

 
96

 
114

 
221

2022
6

 
81

 
114

 
201

2023
5

 
63

 
212

 
280

Thereafter
19

 
189

 
638

 
846

 
$
439

 
$
664

 
$
1,231

 
$
2,334

The significant assumptions used in our determination of amounts presented in the above table are as follows:


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Purchase obligation amounts include minimum purchase commitments for advertising, capital expenditures (computer equipment, software applications, engineering development services and construction contracts), and other goods and services entered into in the ordinary course of business.

Operating lease amounts include minimum rental payments under our non-cancelable operating leases primarily for office and data center facilities. The amounts presented are consistent with contractual terms and are not expected to differ significantly from actual results under our existing leases, unless a substantial change in our headcount needs requires us to expand our occupied space or exit an office facility early.

Transition Tax represents the one-time mandatory tax on previously deferred foreign earnings under the Tax Act, as further discussed in “Note 16—Income Taxes” to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
As we are unable to reasonably predict the timing of settlement of liabilities related to unrecognized tax benefits, net, the table above does not include $615 million of such non-current liabilities included in deferred and other tax liabilities recorded on our consolidated balance sheets as of December 31, 2018.
Seasonality
The Company does not experience meaningful seasonality with respect to net revenues. No individual quarter in 2018, 2017, or 2016 accounted for more than 30% of annual net revenue.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The application of U.S. GAAP requires us to make estimates and assumptions about certain items and future events that directly affect our reported financial condition. We have established detailed policies and control procedures to provide reasonable assurance that the methods used to make estimates and assumptions are well controlled and are applied consistently from period to period. The accounting estimates and assumptions discussed in this section are those that we consider to be the most critical to our financial statements. An accounting estimate is considered critical if both (a) the nature of the estimate or assumption is material due to the levels of subjectivity and judgment involved, and (b) the impact within a reasonable range of outcomes of the estimate and assumption is material to our financial condition. Senior management has discussed the development, selection, and disclosure of these estimates with the Audit, Risk, and Compliance Committee of our Board of Directors. Our significant accounting policies, including recent accounting pronouncements, are described in “Note 1Overview and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” to the consolidated annual financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

A quantitative sensitivity analysis is provided where that information is reasonably available, can be reliably estimated, and provides material information to investors. The amounts used to assess sensitivity are included to allow users of this report to understand a general direction cause and effect of changes in the estimates and do not represent management’s predictions of variability. For all of these estimates, it should be noted that future events rarely develop exactly as forecasted, and estimates require regular review and adjustment.

Transaction and loan losses

Transaction and loan losses include the expense associated with our customer protection programs, fraud, chargebacks, and credit losses associated with our loans receivable balances. Our transaction and loan losses fluctuate depending on many factors, including: total TPV, macroeconomic conditions, changes to our customer protection programs, the impact of regulatory changes, and the credit quality of loans receivable arising from transactions funded with our credit products, which include our PayPal Credit consumer product and merchant loans and advances arising from our PPWC and PPBL products.
We establish allowances for estimated transaction losses arising from processing customer transactions, such as chargebacks for unauthorized credit card use and merchant-related chargebacks due to non-delivery of goods or services, ACH returns, buyer protection program claims, account takeovers, and account overdrafts. Additions to the allowance, in the form of provisions, are reflected in transaction and loan losses in our consolidated statements of income. The allowances are monitored regularly and are updated based on actual claims data. The allowances are based on known facts and circumstances, internal factors including experience with similar cases, historical trends involving loss payment patterns, and the mix of transaction and loss types.

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We also establish an allowance for loans receivable, which represents our estimate of probable incurred loan losses inherent in our merchant loans and advances and consumer loans receivable. Increases to the allowance for loans receivable are reflected as transaction and loan losses in our consolidated financial statements. This evaluation process is subject to numerous estimates and judgments. In connection with the sale of our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio to Synchrony Bank, and the designation of that portfolio as held for sale in November 2017, we released corresponding allowances against those loans and interest receivable balances. No allowances were established on any newly originated U.S. consumer loan receivables from and after November 2017. Adjustments to the cost basis of this portfolio, which are primarily driven by charge offs, are recorded in restructuring and other charges in our consolidated statements of income. For our consumer loan receivables not subject to the sale agreements with Synchrony Bank, consisting primarily of our international consumer receivables, the allowance is primarily based on forecasted principal balance delinquency rates (“roll rates”). Roll rates are the percentage of balances which we estimate will migrate from one stage of delinquency to the next based on our historical experience, as well as external factors such as estimated bankruptcies and levels of unemployment. Roll rates are applied to the principal amount of our consumer loan receivables for each stage of delinquency, from current to 180 days past the payment due date, in order to estimate the principal loans which have incurred losses and are probable to be charged off. For merchant loans and advances receivable the allowance is primarily based on principal balances, forecasted delinquency rates, and recoveries through the use of a vintage-based loss forecasting model.
The allowance for loss against the interest receivable is primarily determined by applying historical average customer account roll rates to the interest receivable balance in each stage of delinquency to project the value of accounts that have incurred losses and are probable to be charged off. The allowance for fees receivable is primarily based on fee balances, forecasted delinquency rates, and recoveries through the use of a vintage-based loss forecasting model. Increases to the allowance for interest receivable are reflected as a reduction of net revenues in our consolidated statements of income. Increases to the allowance for fees receivable are recognized as a reduction in deferred revenues included in other current liabilities in our consolidated balance sheets.

Determining appropriate allowances for these losses is an inherently uncertain process and ultimate losses may vary from the current estimates. We regularly update our allowance estimates as new facts become known and events occur that may impact the settlement or recovery of losses. The allowances are maintained at a level we deem appropriate to adequately provide for losses incurred at the balance sheet date. Based on our results for the year ended December 31, 2018, an aggregate ten percent increase in our transaction and loan loss rate would negatively impact transaction and loan losses by approximately $127 million.

Accounting for Income Taxes

Our annual tax rate is based on our income, statutory tax rates, and tax planning opportunities available to us in the various jurisdictions in which we operate. Tax laws are complex and subject to different interpretations by the taxpayer and respective government taxing authorities. Significant judgment is required in determining our tax expense and in evaluating our tax positions, including evaluating uncertainties. We review our tax positions quarterly and adjust the balances as new information becomes available. Our income tax rate is significantly affected by the tax rates that apply to our foreign earnings. In addition to local country tax laws and regulations, our income tax rate depends on the extent that our foreign earnings are taxed by the U.S. through new provisions under the Tax Act such as the new GILTI tax and BEAT or as a result of our indefinite reinvestment assertion. Indefinite reinvestment is determined by management’s judgment about, and intentions concerning, our future operations.
Deferred tax assets represent amounts available to reduce income taxes payable on taxable income in future years. Such assets arise because of temporary differences between the financial reporting and tax bases of assets and liabilities, as well as from net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards. We evaluate the recoverability of these future tax deductions and credits by assessing the adequacy of future expected taxable income from all sources, including reversal of taxable temporary differences, forecasted operating earnings, and available tax planning strategies. These sources of income rely heavily on estimates that are based on a number of factors, including our historical experience and short-range and long-range business forecasts. To the extent deferred tax assets are not expected to be realized, we record a valuation allowance.
We recognize and measure uncertain tax positions in accordance with U.S. GAAP, pursuant to which we only recognize the tax benefit from an uncertain tax position if it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the taxing authorities, based on the technical merits of the position. The tax benefits recognized in the financial statements from such positions are then measured based on the largest benefit that has a greater than 50 percent likelihood of being realized upon ultimate settlement. We report a liability for unrecognized tax benefits resulting from uncertain tax positions taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. U.S. GAAP further requires that a change in judgment related to the expected ultimate resolution of uncertain tax positions be recognized in earnings in the quarter in which such change occurs. We recognize interest and penalties, if any, related to unrecognized tax benefits in income tax expense.

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We file annual income tax returns in multiple taxing jurisdictions around the world. A number of years may elapse before an uncertain tax position is audited by the relevant tax authorities and finally resolved. While it is often difficult to predict the final outcome or the timing of resolution of any particular uncertain tax position, we believe that our reserves for income taxes are adequate such that we reflect the benefits more likely than not to be sustained in an examination. We adjust these reserves, as well as the related interest, where appropriate in light of changing facts and circumstances. Settlement of any particular position could require the use of cash.

Based on our results for the year ended December 31, 2018, a one-percentage point increase in our effective tax rate would have resulted in an increase in our income tax expense of approximately $24 million.

Loss Contingencies

We are currently involved in various claims, legal proceedings, and investigations of potential operating violations by regulatory oversight authorities. We regularly review the status of each significant matter and assess our potential financial exposure. If the potential loss from any claim, legal proceeding, or potential regulatory violation is considered probable and the amount can be reasonably estimated, we accrue a liability for the estimated loss. Significant judgment is required in both the determination of probability and whether an exposure is reasonably estimable. Our judgments are subjective based on the status of the legal or regulatory proceedings, the merits of our defenses, and consultation with in-house and outside legal counsel. Because of uncertainties related to these matters, accruals are based only on the best information available at the time. As additional information becomes available, we reassess the potential liability related to pending claims, litigation, or other violation and may revise our estimates. Due to the inherent uncertainties of the legal and regulatory process in the multiple jurisdictions in which we operate, our judgments may be materially different than the actual outcomes.

Revenue Recognition

Application of the accounting principles in U.S. GAAP related to the measurement and recognition of revenue requires us to make judgments and estimates. Complex arrangements with nonstandard terms and conditions may require significant contract interpretation to determine the appropriate accounting. Specifically, the determination of whether we are a principal to a transaction (gross revenue) or an agent (net revenue) can require considerable judgment. Further, we provide incentive payments to consumers and merchants, which require judgment to determine whether the payments should be recorded as a reduction to gross revenue. Changes in judgments with respect to these assumptions and estimates could impact the amount of revenue recognized.

Valuation of Goodwill and Intangibles

The valuation of assets acquired in a business combination and asset impairment reviews require the use of significant estimates and assumptions. The acquisition method of accounting for business combinations requires us to estimate the fair value of assets acquired, liabilities assumed, and any non-controlling interest in an acquired business to properly allocate purchase price consideration between assets that are depreciated and amortized from goodwill. Impairment testing for assets, other than goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets, requires the allocation of cash flows to those assets or group of assets and if required, an estimate of fair value for the assets or group of assets. Our estimates are based upon assumptions believed to be reasonable, but which are inherently uncertain and unpredictable. These valuations require the use of management’s assumptions, which do not reflect unanticipated events and circumstances that may occur.
We evaluate goodwill and intangible assets for impairment on an annual basis, or sooner if indicators of impairment exist. Under U.S. GAAP, the evaluation of indefinite-lived intangible assets for impairment allows for a qualitative assessment to be performed, which is similar to the U.S. GAAP for evaluating goodwill for impairment. In performing these qualitative assessments, we consider relevant events and conditions, including but not limited to: macroeconomic trends, industry and market conditions, overall financial performance, cost factors, company-specific events, legal and regulatory factors, and our market capitalization. If the qualitative assessments indicate that it is more likely than not that the fair value of the reporting unit or indefinite-lived intangible assets are less than their carrying amounts, we must perform a quantitative impairment test.
Under the quantitative impairment test, if the carrying amount of the reporting unit goodwill or indefinite-lived intangible asset exceeds the implied fair value of the respective reporting unit goodwill or indefinite-lived intangible asset, an impairment loss is recorded in the statement of income. Measurement of the fair value of a reporting unit is based on one or more of the following fair value measures: amounts at which the unit as a whole could be bought or sold in a current transaction between willing parties, present value techniques of estimated future cash flows, valuation techniques based on multiples of earnings or revenue, or a similar performance measure.

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ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

Market risk is the potential for economic losses to be incurred on market risk sensitive instruments arising from adverse changes in market factors such as interest rates, foreign currency exchange rates, and investment risk. Management establishes and oversees the implementation of policies governing our investing, funding, and foreign currency derivative activities in order to mitigate market risks. We monitor risk exposures on an ongoing basis.

Interest Rate Risk

We are exposed to interest rate risk relating to our investment portfolio and from interest-rate sensitive assets underlying the customer balances we hold on our consolidated balance sheets as customer accounts.

As of December 31, 2018 and 2017, approximately 78% and 39%, respectively, of our total cash, cash equivalents, and investment portfolio was held in cash and cash equivalents. The assets underlying the customer balances we hold on our consolidated balance sheets as customer accounts are maintained in interest and non-interest bearing bank deposits, time deposits, U.S. and foreign government and agency securities, and corporate debt securities. We seek to preserve principal while holding eligible liquid assets, as defined by applicable regulatory requirements and commercial law in the jurisdictions where we operate, equal to at least 100% of the aggregate amount of all customer balances. We do not pay interest on amounts due to customers.

In the fourth quarter of 2017, we entered into an unsecured $3.0 billion, 364 day delayed-draw term loan credit facility, which was available in up to three borrowings (“2017 Credit Agreement”). In the fourth quarter of 2018, we entered into an amended and restated credit agreement (“Amended Credit Agreement”), which provides for an unsecured $5.0 billion, 364-day delayed-draw term loan credit facility, which is available in up to four separate borrowings. In the third quarter of 2015, we entered into a $2.0 billion senior unsecured credit facility maturing in 2020 (“2015 Credit Agreement”). We also maintain uncommitted credit facilities in various regions throughout the world with borrowing capacity of approximately $300 million in the aggregate.

Borrowings under the Amended Credit Agreement and 2015 Credit Agreement, if any, bear interest at floating rates. As a result, we are exposed to fluctuations in interest rates to the extent of our borrowings. As of December 31, 2018, we had $2.0 billion of borrowings outstanding under the Amended Credit Agreement at a weighted average interest rate of 3.34%. Accordingly, at December 31, 2018, $3.0 billion of borrowing capacity was available for the purposes permitted by the Amended Credit Agreement, subject to customary conditions to borrowing. As of December 31, 2018, no borrowings or letters of credit were outstanding under the 2015 Credit Agreement or our uncommitted credit facilities.

Interest rates may also adversely impact our customers’ spending levels and ability and willingness to pay outstanding amounts owed to us. Higher interest rates often lead to higher payment obligations by customers of our credit products to us, or to lenders under mortgage, credit card, and other consumer and merchant loans, which may reduce our customers’ ability to remain current on their obligations to us and therefore lead to increased delinquencies, charge-offs, and allowance for loan and interest receivable, which could have an adverse effect on our net income.

A 100 basis point increase in interest rates would not have had a material impact on our financial assets or liabilities at December 31, 2018 and 2017.

Foreign Currency Exchange Rate Risk

We have significant operations internationally that are denominated in foreign currencies, primarily the British Pound, Euro, Australian Dollar, and Canadian Dollar, subjecting us to foreign currency exchange rate risk which may adversely impact our financial results. We transact business in various foreign currencies and have significant international revenues and costs. In addition, we charge our international subsidiaries for their use of intellectual property and technology and for certain corporate services. Our cash flows, results of operations, and certain of our intercompany balances that are exposed to foreign exchange rate fluctuations may differ materially from expectations, and we may record significant gains or losses due to foreign currency fluctuations and related hedging activities. We are generally a net receiver of foreign currencies and therefore benefit from a weakening of the U.S. dollar, and are adversely affected by a strengthening of the U.S. dollar, relative to foreign currencies.

We have a foreign currency exchange exposure management program designed to identify material foreign currency exposures, manage these exposures, and reduce the potential effects of currency fluctuations on our reported consolidated cash flows and results of operations through the execution of foreign currency exchange contracts. These foreign currency exchange contracts are accounted for as derivative instruments; for additional details related to our foreign currency exchange contracts, please see “Note 10—Derivative Instruments” to the consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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We use foreign currency exchange forward contracts to protect our forecasted U.S. dollar-equivalent earnings from adverse changes in foreign currency exchange rates. These hedging contracts reduce, but do not entirely eliminate, the impact of adverse currency exchange rate movements. We designate these contracts as cash flow hedges for accounting purposes. The derivative’s gain or loss is initially reported as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income (“AOCI”) and subsequently reclassified into the financial statement line item in which the hedged item is recorded in the same period the forecasted transaction affects earnings. If we elect to discontinue our cash flow hedges and it is probable that the original forecasted transaction will occur, we continue to report them in AOCI until the forecasted transaction affects earnings at which point we also reclassify the de-designated hedges into earnings. Gains and losses on derivatives held after we discontinue our cash flow hedges and gains and losses on derivative instruments that are not designated as cash flow hedges are recorded in the same financial statement line item to which the derivative relates.

We considered the historical trends in currency exchange rates and determined that it was reasonably possible that changes in exchange rates of 20% for all currencies could be experienced in the near term. If the U.S. dollar weakened by 20% at December 31, 2018 and 2017, the amount recorded in AOCI related to our foreign currency exchange forward contracts, before taxes, would have been approximately $707 million and $536 million lower, respectively. If the U.S. dollar strengthened by 20% at December 31, 2018 and 2017, the amount recorded in AOCI related to our foreign currency exchange forward contracts, before taxes, would have been approximately $707 million and $536 million higher, respectively.

We have an additional foreign currency exchange management program whereby we use foreign currency exchange contracts to offset the foreign currency exchange risk on our assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the functional currency of our subsidiaries. These contracts are not designated as hedging instruments and reduce, but do not entirely eliminate, the impact of currency exchange rate movements on our assets and liabilities. The foreign currency exchange gains and losses on our assets and liabilities are recorded in other income (expense), net, and are offset by the gains and losses on the foreign currency exchange contracts.

Adverse changes in exchange rates of 20% for all currencies would have resulted in an adverse impact on income before income taxes of approximately $295 million and $243 million at December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively, without considering the offsetting effect of hedging. Foreign currency exchange contracts in place as of December 31, 2018 would have positively impacted income before income taxes by approximately $308 million, resulting in a net positive impact of approximately $13 million. Foreign currency exchange contracts in place as of December 31, 2017 would have positively impacted income before income taxes by approximately