Skrill’s Next U.S. Step Beyond Money Transfer

Paysafe Group has big ambitions for its Skrill financial products in the United States. Monday’s U.S. launch of the Skrill Money Transfer service is but the first step of a broader U.S. expansion for Skrill, says Lorenzo Pellegrino, a Paysafe executive.

The free money-transfer service followed January’s debut of the Skrill Visa Prepaid Card. The brand’s expansion will continue through 2020 and into 2021, with more announcements imminent, says Pellegrino, who is chief executive of Skrill, Netteller, another money-transfer service, and Income Access, an affiliate-marketing service. Skrill was founded in 2001 and acquired by Paysafe—then known as Optimal Payments Plc—in 2015 for $1.2 billion.

The decision to launch Skrill Money Transfer in the U.S. follows its 2018 launch in Europe. “The product has proved a resounding success, and we’ve continued to expand the service into other global markets,” Pellegrino says in an email to Digital Transactions News. “Given that more overseas remittances are sent from the U.S. than any other country, it made sense to expand into this vitally important market.”

Money sent via Skrill can be transferred directly to a bank account. Recipients are not charged a fee by Skrill, though the financial institution may have fees for withdrawals or to receive funds.

The timing aligns well with the post-Covid-19 shift towards e-commerce and online payments in the U.S., Pellegrino says, and with the restrictions on cash- and store-based remittance services under lockdowns in many global markets.

Paysafe’s expectations for Skrill are strong, he says. “As creating a Skrill account is free and we don’t charge senders to use the service or [a foreign-exchange] markup, it’s one of the most cost-effective remittance services in the U.S. market,” Pellegrino says. “New Americans and expats can send to Mexico and India, the top two home countries of American immigrants (home to more than a fifth combined).”