Barclays, PayPal Team Up To Let Customers Use Their Accounts Together

Barclays, the U.K. bank, announced Thursday (April 26) that it has inked a new strategic partnership with PayPal aimed at enabling customers to manage and use their Barclays and PayPal accounts together.

In a press release, the companies said the partnership should benefit millions of consumers and small business customers as the two focus initially on enhancing products and services for their U.K.- and U.S.-based customers, including U.K. small businesses.

For consumers, it means they will be able to access a slew of new features that make it easier to manage their PayPal accounts in Barclay’s digital venues and use Barclays products in their PayPal digital wallet to make online payments via mobile or in-app. For instance, it could include adding Barclays credit and debit cards to a PayPal wallet, an automatic update of the cards in PayPal when they expire and the ability to display the Barclays image in the PayPal wallet to let consumers easily choose it as its preferred way to pay. In what the companies said is a first-of-its-kind partnership, Barclays and PayPal will look for ways to connect Pingit and PayPal to improve how customers can move and manage money. They will also explore ways for U.S. consumers to redeem Barclays rewards points at businesses that accept PayPal around the world.

As for small businesses, Barclays and PayPal said PayPal’s small business customers will be able to see a snapshot of their PayPal balance, recent transactions, and sales on the Barclays SmartBusiness Dashboard, which enables small businesses in the U.K. to see their business information from third-party apps alongside their Barclays account information. Barclays says it is the first bank in the U.K. to collaborate with PayPal in this way.

“Our customers and clients live in an increasingly connected world, and this is why we are working with PayPal to make services more joined up and convenient for them. By joining forces, we can make it much easier for people to manage their money and payments,” said Ashok Vaswani, Barclays U.K. CEO, in the press release. “Each of these new features — whether removing the hassle of updating an expired card, connecting with Pingit, or being able to see all your finances in one place — are about designing the very best customer experience. Barclays is becoming a digital company, and I believe this strategic partnership with PayPal will provide the first of many new developments in which we join up with partners to enhance digital journeys.”