Sprint Financial targets US$60m PayPal payments with fintech platform
MICROFINANCING FIRM Sprint Financial Services has introduced two new business lines, purchase order financing and transfers of PayPal payments through newly developed portal
SprintFinx.com. The online portal will facilitate settlement of PayPal transfers within 24 hours, says Sprint Financial CEO Christopher Barrett, at onefifth the rates that merchants now face. Barrett told the
Financial Gleaner
that local merchants have upwards of US$60 million in PayPal accounts. He is planning to tap that market by cutting settlement periods for payment of goods and services sold internationally, from over two months through PayPal to a day. PayPal does not transfer funds to Jamaican bank accounts. Instead, payees request US dollar cheques that take 30 days or a month to be issued. The cheques then take another 40 days to clear Jamaican bank accounts. On registration with Sprint, users will be able to transfer their PayPal funds to Sprints account and get the funds in 24 hours, at a cost of five per cent of the transaction value, Barrett said Tuesday. Comparatively, Sprint said merchants face charges of up to 25 per cent and have wait times of up to 90 days to settle transactions.
Under the Sprint platform, individuals can transfer US$100 to US$500 daily, while registered companies can transfer between US$250 and US$2,500 daily. Barrett said the limits are related to reporting requirements for funds in excess of that amount. So far, 20 merchants, mainly manufacturers, have signed up for the SprintFinx.com service, he said.
Also in April, the microlender introduced purchase order financing at charges to businesses that range between eight per cent and 12 per cent of order value. Companies wanting to buy raw materials and other supplies but do not have the ready cash can obtain the funds from Sprint Financial and repay the microlender in 40 days.
No collateral is required for the purchase order loan.
Sprint Financial’s latest product innovations follow its launch of an invoice factoring service in 2018, for which the portfolio size is now $25 million, and growing at the rate of 10 per cent per month, Barrett said.
The SprintFinx.com platform also accommodates digital payment options, such as MyCash and Quisk.
The microlender says it has an agreement with Avaris Interactive to license its fintech platform ClickCapital for delivery of its online financial services.