PayPal is “exploring” the concept of permitting its customers to commerce particular person shares. Per , the corporate just lately employed co-founder Richard Hagen to move up a brand new unit on the firm known as Invest at PayPal. “Leading PayPal’s efforts to explore opportunities in the consumer investment business,” Hagan says of his new job on his . The outlet stories PayPal has additionally had discussions with potential brokerage companions.

Moving into retail buying and selling wouldn’t be out of character for PayPal. The firm has spent a lot of the final 12 months increasing into the cryptocurrency market. It all began when PayPal introduced it will let US customers purchase, promote and maintain Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. PayPal CEO Dan Schulman additionally the corporate may associate with totally different monetary establishments to broaden the variety of companies it provides. He even talked about “investment capabilities” as one chance. Either manner, it’s a transfer that will make sense within the context of all of the current curiosity in retail buying and selling that got here out of the .

A PayPal spokesperson declined to touch upon the report once we reached out.

Should PayPal resolve to supply inventory buying and selling, it might take a while earlier than it’s out there to US customers. CNBC stories PayPal is unlikely to roll out the service this 12 months. And if the corporate decides it desires to function as its personal brokerage agency, it will want approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). That’s a course of that may take greater than eight months.