PayPal have hired a new Compliance Officer, who’s role will be to ensure PayPal complies with regulatory requirements in the countries that they operate. Leonard Shen comes to PayPal from American Express where he worked as chief compliance and ethics officer. He has also worked for the US Senate, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
PayPal and eBay have had some run ins with the authorities in Australia where they attempted to make PayPal a default payment method on eBay and more recently in India where withdrawals to bank accounts were suspended for a period of time. On a more personal note they’ve recently given me some trouble with additional verification where PayPal decided I wasn’t using a real name (although they eventually changed it they capitulated and let me keep the name “Chris Dawson”.
Having a Compliance Officer makes a lot of sense for PayPal, any company dealing in finance needs to be squeaky clean and make sure they’re operating within the countries regulations that they trade in. However personally I can do without having to deal with any more additional verification nonsense however compliant it makes PayPal.
