PayPal Holdings 10-K 2017-12-31

10-K 1 pypl201710-k.htm 10-K

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017.

OR

For the Transition Period from to .

Commission file number 001-36859

PayPal Holdings, Inc.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

(408) 967-1000

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934:

None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.

Yes [x] No [ ]

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act. Yes [ ] No [x]

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes [x] No [ ]

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes [x] No [ ]

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§ 229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrant's knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. Yes [x] No [ ]

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes [ ] No [x]

As of June 30, 2017, the aggregate market value of the registrant's common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $64.5 billion based on the closing sale price as reported on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.

As of February 2, 2018, there were 1,200,160,405 shares of common stock outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated herein by reference in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the extent stated herein. Such proxy statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2017.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Presentation of Information

On July 17, 2015, PayPal Holdings, Inc. (“PayPal Holdings”) became an independent publicly traded company through the pro rata distribution by eBay (defined below) of 100% of the outstanding common stock of PayPal Holdings to eBay’s stockholders (which we refer to as the “separation” or the “distribution”). For additional information, see “Business—Separation from eBay Inc.” To accomplish this separation, in January 2015, eBay incorporated PayPal Holdings, Inc., which ultimately became the parent of PayPal, Inc. and holds directly or indirectly all of the assets and liabilities associated with PayPal, Inc. Unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires, references to “we,” “our,” “us,” “the Company” or “PayPal” refer to PayPal Holdings, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries or, in the case of information as of dates or for periods prior to our separation from eBay, the consolidated entities of the payments business of eBay, including PayPal, Inc. and certain other assets and liabilities that were historically held at the eBay corporate level, but were specifically identifiable and attributable to the payments business, and references to our “Payments Platform” mean our combined payment solution capabilities, including our PayPal, PayPal Credit, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom, and Paydiant products.

References in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to “eBay” refer to eBay Inc., a Delaware corporation, and its consolidated subsidiaries, which prior to the separation and distribution, but not after such date, included the business and operations of PayPal.

Trademarks, Trade Names and Service Marks

PayPal owns or has rights to use the trademarks, service marks and trade names that it uses in conjunction with the operation of its business. Some of the more important trademarks that PayPal owns or has rights to use that appear in this Annual Report on Form 10-K include: PayPal®, PayPal Credit®, Braintree, Venmo, and Xoom, which may be registered or trademarked in the United States and other jurisdictions. PayPal’s rights to some of these trademarks may be limited to select markets. Each trademark, trade name or service mark of any other company appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K is, to PayPal’s knowledge, owned by such other company.

PART I

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements that involve expectations, plans or intentions (such as those relating to future business, future results of operations or financial condition, new or planned features or services, or management strategies). You can identify these forward-looking statements by words such as “may,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan” and other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, those discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as in our consolidated financial statements, related notes, and the other information appearing elsewhere in this report and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). We do not intend, and undertake no obligation, to update any of our forward-looking statements after the date of this report to reflect actual results or future events or circumstances. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. You should read the information in this report in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes that appear elsewhere in this report.

Overview

PayPal Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in January 2015 and is a leading technology platform and digital payments company that enables digital and mobile payments on behalf of consumers and merchants worldwide. Our vision is to democratize financial services, as we believe that managing and moving money is a right for all people, not just the affluent. Our goal is to increase our relevance for consumers and merchants to manage and move their money anywhere in the world, anytime, on any platform and using any device. Our combined payment solutions, including our PayPal, PayPal Credit, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom, and Paydiant products, compose our proprietary Payments Platform.

We operate a two-sided proprietary global technology platform that links our customers, which consist of both merchants and consumers, around the globe to facilitate the processing of payment transactions, allowing us to connect millions of merchants and consumers worldwide. We offer our customers the flexibility to use their account to both purchase and receive payment for goods and services, as well as to transfer and withdraw funds. We enable consumers to more safely exchange funds with merchants using a variety of funding sources, which may include a bank account, a PayPal account balance, a PayPal Credit account, a credit or debit card or other stored value products such as coupons and gift cards. Our PayPal, Venmo and Xoom products also make it safer and simpler for friends and family to transfer funds to each other. We offer merchants an end-to-end payments solution that provides authorization and settlement capabilities, as well as instant access to funds. We help merchants connect with their customers and manage risk. We enable consumers to engage in cross-border shopping and merchants to extend their global reach while reducing the complexity and friction involved in enabling overseas and cross-border trade.

We generate revenues by charging fees for providing transaction processing and other payment-related services based primarily on the volume of activity processed through our Payments Platform. We generally do not charge consumers to fund or draw from their accounts; however, we generate revenue from consumers on fees charged for foreign currency exchange. We also earn revenue by providing value added services to consumers and merchants, such as our PayPal Credit and gateway services. Our gateway services, which include our Payflow Gateway services and Braintree Gateway services, provide the technology that links a merchant’s website to its processing network and merchant account and enable merchants to accept payments online with credit or debit cards.

Strategy

Our ability to grow revenue is affected by, among other things, consumer spending patterns, merchant and consumer adoption of digital payment methods, the expansion of multiple commerce channels, the growth of mobile devices and merchant and consumer applications on those devices, the growth of consumers globally with Internet and mobile access, the pace of transition from cash and checks to digital forms of payment, our share of the digital payments market, and our ability to innovate new methods of payment that merchants and consumers value. Our strategy to drive growth in our business includes the following:

Key Performance Metrics

We measure the relevance of our products to our customers, and therefore the success of our business, through active customer accounts, payment volume and payment transactions:

Active Customer Accounts: An active customer account is a registered account that successfully sent or received at least one payment or payment reversal through our Payments Platform, excluding transactions processed through our gateway and Paydiant products, in the past 12 months. As of December 31, 2017, we had approximately 227 million active customer accounts across more than 200 markets. A market is a geographic area or political jurisdiction, such as a country, territory, or protectorate, in which we offer our services. A country, territory or protectorate is identified by a distinct set of laws and regulations.

Number of Payment Transactions: Number of payment transactions is defined as the total number of payments, net of payment reversals, successfully completed through our Payments Platform, excluding transactions processed through our gateway and Paydiant products.

Total Payment Volume (“TPV”): TPV is the value of payments, net of payment reversals, successfully completed through our Payments Platform, excluding transactions processed through our gateway and Paydiant products.

Our Strengths

Our business is built on a strong foundation designed to drive growth and differentiate us from our competitors. We believe that our competitive strengths include the following:

Technology

Our Payments Platform utilizes a combination of proprietary technologies and services as well as technologies and services provided by third parties to efficiently and securely facilitate transactions between millions of merchants and consumers worldwide across different channels, markets and networks. Our Payments Platform connects with financial institutions around the world and allows consumers to make purchases using a wide range of payment methods, regardless of where a merchant is located. Consumers who use our Payments Platform can send payments in more than 200 markets across the globe and in more than 100 currencies, withdraw funds to their bank accounts in 56 currencies and hold balances in their PayPal accounts in 25 currencies.

A transaction on our Payments Platform can involve multiple participants in addition to us including a merchant, a consumer and the consumer’s funding source provider. We have developed intuitive user interfaces, customer tools on our Payments Platform, transaction processing, and database and network applications that help our customers utilize our suite of products and services. Our Payments Platform, open application programming interfaces, and developer tools are designed to enable developers to innovate with ease and offer robust applications to our global ecosystem of merchants and consumers, while at the same time maintaining the security of our customers’ financial information.

The technology infrastructure supporting our Payments Platform simplifies the storage and processing of large amounts of data, and facilitates the deployment and operation of large-scale global products and services and automates much of the administration of large-scale clusters of computers. Our technology infrastructure has been designed around industry-standard architectures to reduce downtime in the event of outages or catastrophic occurrences. Our Payments Platform incorporates multiple layers of protection, both for continuity and system redundancy purposes and to help address cybersecurity challenges. We engage in multiple efforts to protect our technology infrastructure and Payments Platform against these challenges, including regularly testing our systems to address potential vulnerabilities. We strive to continually improve our technology infrastructure and Payments Platform to enhance the customer experience and to increase efficiency, scalability and security.

Merchant and Consumer Payment Solutions

Our combined payment solution capabilities offer our merchants and consumers a broad range of products and services, enabling our merchants to safely and simply receive payments from their customers while allowing our consumers to make seamless transactions across different markets and networks.

We partner with our merchants to help grow and expand their businesses by improving sales conversion, providing global reach, offering alternative payment methods, reducing losses through proprietary protection programs and leveraging data analytics. Merchants can onboard quickly with PayPal and are not required to invest in new or specialized hardware. For our standard service, we do not charge merchants setup or recurring fees. We offer access to credit products for certain small and medium-sized merchants through PayPal Working Capital and, with the recent acquisition of Swift Financial Corporation ("Swift"), other business loan products. Our PayPal Working Capital product allows businesses to borrow a certain percentage of their annual payment volume

processed by PayPal for a fee. Our Swift business loan products provide businesses with access to short-term business financing based on an evaluation of both the applying business as well as the business owner. We believe that our business financing offerings allow us to deepen our engagement with our small and medium-sized business merchants by providing them with access to capital to grow their business that they may not otherwise be able to effectively or efficiently access from traditional banks or other lending providers. Our recent acquisition of Swift also enables us to enhance our underwriting capabilities and strengthen our business financing offerings, helping us to deepen relationships with our existing merchants and expand services to new merchants.

PayPal is a popular form of payment for mobile commerce, and our business has grown with the increased adoption of mobile devices. We believe our Braintree products strengthen our position in mobile payments and extend our coverage to a new class of retailers and service providers that offer their services primarily through mobile applications. Through a single Braintree integration, a merchant can begin accepting payments with credit or debit cards, PayPal, Android Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and other payment solutions. We also offer gateway services, including our Payflow Gateway services and Braintree Gateway services, that enable merchants to accept payments online with credit or debit cards. Our gateway services provide the payment gateway technology that links a merchant’s website to its processing network and enable merchants to accept payments online with credit and debit cards.

We focus on providing affordable consumer products intended to democratize the management and movement of money. We offer our customers the flexibility to use their account to both purchase and receive payment for goods and services, as well as transfer and withdraw funds. We enable consumers to more safely exchange funds with merchants using a variety of financial resources, which may include a bank account, a PayPal account balance, a PayPal Credit account, a credit or debit card or other stored value products such as coupons and gift cards. We generally do not charge consumers to fund or draw from their accounts. We generate revenue from consumers on fees charged for foreign currency exchange and on interest and fees from our PayPal Credit product. We offer our PayPal Credit product to consumers as a potential funding source at checkout. Once a consumer is approved for credit, PayPal Credit is made available as a funding source in their account. We believe that our consumer credit products allow us to increase engagement with both consumers and merchants on our two-sided network as well as differentiate ourselves from rival payment processors by helping merchants drive incremental sales through products like PayPal Credit. We are responsible for all servicing functions related to all of our credit products. In the U.S., credit originated through our PayPal Credit, PayPal Working Capital and Swift business loan products is currently extended through third-party financial institutions, from whom we purchase the related receivables. For our consumer and merchant credit products outside the U.S., we extend credit through certain international PayPal subsidiaries.

During the fourth quarter of 2017, we expanded our strategic consumer credit relationship with Synchrony Financial ("Synchrony") and agreed to sell our U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio to Synchrony Bank. Following the closing of this transaction, which is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2018, Synchrony Bank will become the exclusive issuer of the PayPal Credit online consumer financing program in the U.S. and we will no longer hold any participation interest in the receivables generated through the program (other than charged off receivables).

We offer consumers person-to-person (“P2P”) payment solutions through our PayPal, Venmo and Xoom products. PayPal continues to drive the majority of our total P2P volumes, enabling both domestic and international P2P transfers across our Payments Platform. Our Venmo app in the U.S. is a leading mobile application used to move money between friends and family. Xoom is an international money transfer service that enables our customers to send money to, pay bills for and send prepaid mobile phone reloads for family and friends around the world in a secure, fast and cost-effective way, using their mobile device or personal computers. P2P is a significant customer acquisition channel with network effects that helps us to establish relationships with potential PayPal users by allowing them to join our Payments Platform at the time of making or receiving P2P payments, which drives organic growth.

Protecting Merchants and Consumers

Protecting merchants and consumers on our Payments Platform from financial and data loss is imperative to successfully competing in the payments industry and sustainably growing our business. Fraudulent activities, such as account takeover, identity theft and counterparty malicious activities, represent a significant and growing risk to merchants and consumers, as well as their payment partners. We provide merchants and consumers with protection programs on most purchase transactions completed through our Payments Platform, except for transactions using our gateway and Paydiant products. We believe that these programs, which protect both merchants and consumers from financial and data loss due primarily to fraud and counterparty non-performance, are generally much broader than similar protections provided by other participants in the payments industry. Many payment providers do not offer merchant protection in general, and those that do generally do not provide protection for online or card not present transactions. As a result, merchants may incur losses for chargebacks and other claims on certain transactions when using other payments providers that they would not incur if they used our payments services. We also provide consumer protection against losses on qualifying purchases and accept claims for 180 days post transaction in the markets that we serve. We believe that this protection is generally consistent with, or better than, that offered by other payments providers. We believe that as a result of these

programs, consumers can be confident that they will only be required to pay if they receive the product in the condition as described, and merchants can be confident that they will receive payment for the product that they are delivering to the customer.

Our ability to protect both consumers and merchants is based largely on our proprietary end-to-end payments platform and our ability to leverage the data we collect on both sides of the transactions on our two-sided network (i.e., from buyers and sellers, and from senders and receivers of payments). We believe mobile devices will continue to play a significant and increasing role in commerce, including by creating the opportunities to make our ecosystem safer. For example, PayPal is able to use location data from mobile devices and growing protection for the mobile operating environment to reduce risk to merchants and consumers. Our ongoing investment in systems and processes, designed to enhance the safety and security of our products, reflects our goal of having PayPal recognized as one of the world’s most trusted payments brands.

Competition

The global payments industry is highly competitive. We compete against a wide range of businesses, including banks, credit card providers, technology and ecommerce companies and traditional retailers, many of which are larger than we are, have a dominant and secure position, or offer other products and services to consumers and merchants which we do not offer. We compete against all forms of payments, including credit and debit cards; automated clearing house and bank transfers; other online payment services; mobile payments; and offline payment methods, including cash and check.

We compete primarily on the basis of the following:

In addition to the discussion in this section, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the caption “Substantial and increasingly intense competition worldwide in the global payments industry may harm our business” for further discussion of the potential impact of competition on our business.

Research and Development

Total research and development expense was $953 million, $834 million and $792 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Intellectual Property

The protection of our intellectual property, including our trademarks (particularly those covering the PayPal name), patents, copyrights, domain names, trade dress and trade secrets is important to the success of our business. We seek to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on applicable laws and regulations in the U.S. and internationally, as well as a variety of administrative procedures. We also rely on contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary rights when offering or procuring products and services. We have routinely entered into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors and non-disclosure agreements with parties with whom we conduct business to control access to and limit disclosure of our proprietary information.

We pursue the registration of our domain names, trademarks and service marks in the U.S. and internationally. Additionally, we have filed U.S. and international patent applications covering certain aspects of our proprietary technology. We have registered our core brands as trademarks and domain names in the U.S. and a large number of other jurisdictions and have in place an active program to continue to secure trademarks and domain names that correspond to our brands in markets of interest.

For additional information regarding some of the risks relating to our intellectual property, including costs of protecting our intellectual property, see the information in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the captions “We are subject to patent litigation” and “We may be unable to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, or third parties may allege that we are infringing their intellectual property rights.”

Government Regulation

We operate globally and in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment characterized by a heightened regulatory focus on all aspects of the payments industry. That focus continues to become even more heightened as regulators on a global basis focus on such important issues as countering terrorist financing, anti-money laundering, privacy and consumer protection. Some of the laws and regulations to which we are subject were enacted recently, and the laws and regulations applicable to us, including those enacted prior to the advent of digital and mobile payments, are continuing to evolve through legislative and regulatory action and judicial interpretation. Non-compliance with laws and regulations, increased penalties and enforcement actions related to non-compliance, changes in laws and regulations, or their interpretation, and the enactment of new laws and regulations applicable to us could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Therefore, we monitor these areas closely to design compliant solutions for our customers who depend on us.

Government regulation impacts key aspects of our business. We are subject to regulations that affect the payments industry in the markets we operate.

Payments Regulation. Various laws and regulations govern the payments industry in the U.S. and internationally. In the U.S., PayPal, Inc. holds licenses to operate as a money transmitter (or its equivalent), which, among other things, subjects PayPal, Inc. to reporting requirements, bonding requirements, limitations on the investment of customer funds and inspection by state regulatory agencies. Outside the U.S., we provide localized versions of our service to customers through various foreign subsidiaries. The activities of those non-U.S. entities are, or may be, supervised by a financial regulatory authority in the jurisdictions in which they operate. Among other regulatory authorities, the Luxembourg Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (the “CSSF”), the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Reserve Bank of India, and the Central Bank of Russia have asserted jurisdiction over some or all of our activities in country. This list is not exhaustive, as there are numerous other regulatory agencies that have or may assert jurisdiction over our activities. The laws and regulations applicable to the payments industry in any given jurisdiction are subject to interpretation and change.

Banking Agency Supervision. We serve our customers in the European Union through PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. et Cie, SCA, a wholly-owned subsidiary that is licensed and subject to regulation as a bank in Luxembourg by the CSSF. Consequently, we must comply with rules and regulations of the banking industry, including those related to capitalization, funds management, corporate governance, anti-money laundering, disclosure, reporting and inspection. We also are, or may be, subject to banking-related regulations in other countries now or in the future related to our role in the financial industry. In addition, based on our relationships with our partner financial institutions, we are, or may be, subject to indirect regulation and examination by these financial institutions’ regulators.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB”) has significant authority to regulate consumer financial products in the United States, including consumer credit, deposit, payment, and similar products. As a large market participant of remittance transfers, the CFPB has direct supervisory authority over our business. The CFPB and other similar regulatory agencies in other jurisdictions may have broad consumer protection mandates that could result in the promulgation and interpretation of rules and regulations that may affect our business.

Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing. PayPal is subject to anti-money laundering (“AML”) laws and regulations in the U.S. and other jurisdictions, as well as laws designed to prevent the use of the financial systems to facilitate terrorist activities. Our AML program is designed to prevent our payment network from being used to facilitate money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit activities, or to do business in countries or with persons and entities included on designated country or person lists promulgated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls (“OFAC”) and equivalent authorities in other countries. Our AML compliance program, overseen by our AML/Bank Secrecy Act Officer, is composed of policies, procedures and internal controls, and is designed to address these legal and regulatory requirements and assist in managing money laundering and terrorist financing risks.

Interchange Fees. Interchange fees associated with four-party payments systems are being reviewed or challenged in various jurisdictions. For example, in the European Union ("EU"), the Multilateral Interchange Fee (“MIF”) Regulation caps credit and debit interchange fees for cards payments and provides for business rules to be complied with by any company dealing with card

transactions, including PayPal. As a result, the fees that we collect in certain jurisdictions may become the subject of regulatory challenge.

Data Protection and Information Security. Aspects of our operations or business are subject to privacy and data protection regulation in the United States ("U.S."), the EU and elsewhere. For example, the EU has adopted a comprehensive General Data Protection Regulation (the "GDPR"), which comes into effect in May 2018 and expands the scope of the EU data protection law to all foreign companies processing personal data of EU residents, imposes a strict data protection compliance regime, and includes new rights. In the United States, we are subject to information safeguarding requirements under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that require the maintenance of a written, comprehensive information security program and in Europe, the operations of our Luxembourg bank are subject to information safeguarding requirements under the Luxembourg Banking Act, among other laws. Regulatory authorities around the world are considering numerous legislative and regulatory proposals concerning privacy and data protection. In addition, the interpretation and application of these privacy and data protection laws in the United States, Europe and elsewhere are often uncertain and in a state of flux.

Anti-Corruption. PayPal is subject to applicable anti-corruption laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act, and similar anti-corruption laws in the jurisdictions in which it operates. Anti-corruption laws generally prohibit offering, promising, giving, accepting or authorizing others to provide anything of value, either directly or indirectly, to or from a government official or private party in order to influence official action or otherwise gain an unfair business advantage, such as to obtain or retain business. We have implemented policies, procedures, and internal controls that are designed to comply with these laws and regulations.

Additional Regulatory Developments. Various regulatory agencies continue to examine a wide variety of issues, including virtual currencies, identity theft, account management guidelines, privacy, disclosure rules, security and marketing that may impact PayPal's business.

For an additional discussion on governmental regulation affecting our business, please see the risk factors related to regulation of our payments business and regulation in the areas of consumer privacy, data use and/or security in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the caption “Risk Factors That May Affect Our Business, Results of Operations and Financial Condition” and “Item 3. Legal Proceedings” included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Seasonality

The Company does not experience meaningful seasonality with respect to net revenues. No individual quarter in 2017, 2016 or 2015 accounted for more than 30% of annual net revenue.

Financial Information About Segments

We operate in one business segment and have one reportable segment. See “Note 11—Segment and Geographical Information” to the consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information including certain financial information about our operations in the U.S. and internationally. Additionally, please see the information in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the caption “Our international operations are subject to increased risks, which could harm our business,” which describes risks associated with our foreign operations.

Employees

As of December 31, 2017, we employed approximately 18,700 people globally, of whom approximately 10,600 were located in the U.S. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good.

Separation from eBay Inc.

PayPal Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in January 2015 for the purpose of owning and operating eBay’s Payments business in connection with the separation and distribution described below. Prior to the contribution of this business to PayPal Holdings, Inc., which occurred prior to the distribution in July 2015, PayPal Holdings, Inc. had no operations. On July 17, 2015 (the “distribution date”), PayPal became an independent publicly traded company through the pro rata distribution by eBay of 100% of the outstanding common stock of PayPal to eBay stockholders (which we refer to as the “separation” or the “distribution”). Each eBay stockholder of record as of the close of business on July 8, 2015 received one share of PayPal common stock for every share of eBay common stock held on the record date. Approximately 1.2 billion shares of PayPal common stock were distributed on July 17, 2015 to eBay stockholders. PayPal’s common stock began “regular way” trading under the ticker symbol “PYPL” on

the NASDAQ Stock Market on July 20, 2015. Prior to the separation, eBay transferred substantially all of the assets and liabilities and operations of eBay’s payments business to PayPal, which was completed in June 2015.

Available Information

The address of our principal executive offices is PayPal Holdings, Inc., 2211 North First Street, San Jose, California 95131. Our website is located at www.paypal.com, and our investor relations website is located at http://investor.paypal-corp.com. From time to time, we may use our investor relations site and other online and social media channels, including our PayPal Stories Blog (https://www.paypal.com/stories/us), Twitter handle (@PayPal), LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/company/paypal), Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/PayPalUSA/), YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/paypal), Dan Schulman's LinkedIn profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-schulman/) and Dan Schulman's Facebook profile (https://www.facebook.com/DanSchulmanPayPal/) to disclose material non-public information and comply with our disclosure obligations under Regulation Fair Disclosure. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports are available free of charge on our investor relations website as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. The content of our websites and information that we may post on or provide to online and social media channels, including those mentioned above, and information that can be accessed through our websites or these online and social media channels is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our websites or these online and social media channels are intended to be inactive textual references only.

The following discussion is divided into three sections. The first section, which begins immediately following this paragraph, discusses some of the risks that may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The second section, captioned “Risks Related to the Separation and Our Operation as an Independent Publicly Traded Company,” discusses some of the risks relating to our separation into an independent publicly traded company. The third section, captioned “Risks Related to Our Common Stock,” discusses some of the risks relating to an investment in our Common Stock. You should carefully review all of these sections for important information regarding risks and uncertainties that affect us, in addition to the other information appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and future prospects could be materially and adversely affected.

Risk Factors That May Affect Our Business, Results of Operations and Financial Condition

Substantial and increasingly intense competition worldwide in the global payments industry may harm our business.

The global payments industry is highly competitive, and we compete against a wide range of businesses, some of which are larger than we are, have a dominant and secure position, or offer other products and services to consumers and merchants that we do not offer. The global payments industry is rapidly changing, highly innovative and increasingly subject to regulatory scrutiny. Many of the areas in which we compete evolve rapidly with changing and disruptive technologies, shifting user needs, and frequent introductions of new products and services. Competition may also intensify as businesses against which we compete or merchants enter into business combinations and alliances, and established companies in other segments expand to become competitive with our business.

We compete against a wide range of businesses with varying roles in all forms of payments, including:

We often partner with many of these businesses and we consider the ability to continue establishing these partnerships as important to our business. Competition for relationships with these partners is intense and there can be no assurance that we will be able to continue to establish, grow or maintain these partner relationships.

We also face competition and potential competition from:

Some of these competitors have larger customer bases, volume, scale, resources, and market share than we do, which may provide significant competitive advantages. Some of our competitors may also be subject to less burdensome licensing, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and other regulatory requirements. They may devote greater resources to the development, promotion, and sale of products and services, and they may offer lower prices or more effectively introduce their own innovative programs, products and services that adversely impact our growth.

We compete primarily on the basis of the following:

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None.

We own and lease various properties in the U.S. and other countries around the world. We use the properties for executive and administrative offices, data centers, product development offices and customer service offices. As of December 31, 2017, our owned and leased properties provided us with aggregate square footage as follows:

We own a total of 22 acres of land in the U.S. Our corporate headquarters are located in San Jose, California and occupy approximately 0.7 million of owned square feet.

The information set forth under “Note 13—Commitments and Contingencies—Litigation and Regulatory Matters” to the consolidated financial statements included in Part IV, Item 15 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K is incorporated herein by reference.

Not applicable.

PART II

Price Range of Common Stock

PayPal common stock is quoted on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the ticker symbol “PYPL.” The following table sets forth the range of high and low per share market prices as reported for each period indicated:

As of February 2, 2018, there were approximately 3,905 holders of record of our common stock. The actual number of stockholders is significantly greater than this number of record holders, and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners, but whose shares are held in street name by brokers and other nominees.

Dividend Policy

We have never paid any cash dividends and we currently do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

Stock Repurchase Activity

We did not repurchase any shares of our common stock in 2015. In January 2016, our Board of Directors authorized a stock repurchase program that provided for the repurchase of up to $2 billion of our common stock, with no expiration from the date of authorization. In April 2017, our Board of Directors authorized an additional stock repurchase program that provides for the repurchase of up to $5 billion of our common stock, with no expiration from the date of authorization. This program became effective upon completion of the January 2016 stock repurchase program. The stock repurchase programs are intended to offset the impact of dilution from our equity compensation programs and, subject to market conditions and other factors, may also be used to make opportunistic repurchases of our common stock to reduce outstanding share count. Any share repurchases under our stock repurchase programs may be made through open market transactions, block trades, privately negotiated transactions or other means at times and in such amounts as management deems appropriate and will be funded from our working capital or other financing alternatives. However, any stock repurchases are subject to market conditions and other uncertainties and we cannot predict if or when any stock repurchases will be made. Moreover, we may terminate our stock repurchase programs at any time without notice.

The stock repurchase activity under our stock repurchase programs during the three months ended December 31, 2017 is summarized as follows:

(1) Average price paid per share includes broker commissions.

These repurchased shares of common stock were recorded as treasury stock and were accounted for under the cost method. No repurchased shares of common stock have been retired.

The following selected financial data reflect the consolidated operations of PayPal. PayPal derived the selected consolidated income statement data for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2017 and 2016 as set forth below, from its audited consolidated financial statements, which are included in “Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. PayPal derived the selected consolidated income statement data for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013 and selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2015 and 2014 from audited consolidated financial statements not included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. PayPal derived the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2013 from PayPal’s underlying financial records, which were derived from the financial records of eBay. The historical results do not necessarily indicate the results expected for any future period. To ensure a full understanding, you should read the selected consolidated financial data presented below in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes included elsewhere in this report.

(1) On July 17, 2015, the distribution date, eBay stockholders of record as of the close of business on July 8, 2015 received one share of PayPal common stock for every share of eBay common stock held as of the record date. Basic and diluted net income per share for the years ended December 31, 2014, and 2013 were calculated using the number of common shares distributed on July 17, 2015.

(2) The weighted average number of common shares outstanding for basic and diluted earnings per share for the year ended December 31, 2015 was based on the number of common shares distributed on July 17, 2015 for the period prior to distribution and the weighted average number of common shares outstanding for the period beginning after the distribution date.

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements that involve expectations, plans or intentions (such as those relating to future business, future results of operations or financial condition, new or planned features or services, or management strategies). These forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as “may,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan” and other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, those discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as in our consolidated financial statements, related notes, and the other information appearing elsewhere in this report and our other filings with the SEC. We do not intend, and undertake no obligation, to update any of our forward-looking statements after the date of this report to reflect actual results or future events or circumstances. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. You should read the following “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes that appear elsewhere in this report.

Separation from eBay Inc.

On September 30, 2014, eBay Inc. (“eBay”) announced its intent to separate its payments business into an independent, publicly traded company. To accomplish this separation, in January 2015, eBay incorporated PayPal Holdings, Inc. (“PayPal Holdings”) which is now the parent of PayPal, Inc. and holds directly or indirectly all of the assets and liabilities associated with PayPal, Inc. In June 2015, the board of directors of eBay approved the separation (the “separation”) of eBay's payments business through the distribution (the “distribution”) of 100% of the outstanding common stock of PayPal Holdings to eBay's stockholders. PayPal Holdings' registration statement on Form 10, as amended, was declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on June 29, 2015. On July 17, 2015 (the “distribution date”), PayPal Holdings became an independent publicly traded company through the pro rata distribution by eBay of 100% of the outstanding common stock of PayPal Holdings to eBay stockholders. Each eBay stockholder of record as of the close of business on July 8, 2015 received one share of PayPal Holdings common stock for every share of eBay common stock held on the record date. Approximately 1.2 billion shares of PayPal Holdings common stock were distributed on July 17, 2015 to eBay stockholders. PayPal Holdings' common stock began “regular way” trading under the ticker symbol “PYPL” on the NASDAQ Stock Market on July 20, 2015.

Prior to the separation, eBay transferred substantially all of the assets and liabilities and operations of eBay's payments business to PayPal Holdings, which was completed in June 2015 (the “capitalization”). The consolidated financial statements prior to the capitalization were prepared on a stand-alone basis and were derived from eBay's consolidated financial statements and accounting records. The consolidated financial statements reflect our financial position, results of operations, comprehensive income and cash flows as our business was operated as part of eBay prior to the capitalization. Following the capitalization, our consolidated financial statements include the accounts of PayPal Holdings and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. The consolidated financial position, results of operations and cash flows as of dates and for periods prior to the separation may not be indicative of what our financial position, results of operations and cash flows would have been as a separate stand-alone entity during the periods presented, nor are they indicative of what our financial position, results of operations and cash flows may be in the future. For additional information, see “Note 1—Overview and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires, references to “we,” “our,” “us,” “the Company” and “PayPal” refer to PayPal Holdings and its consolidated subsidiaries or, in the case of information as of dates or for periods prior to the separation, the consolidated entities of the payments business of eBay, including PayPal, Inc. and certain other assets and liabilities that had been historically held at the eBay corporate level but were specifically identifiable and attributable to the payments business.

Business Environment

We are a leading technology platform and digital payments company that enables digital and mobile payments on behalf of consumers and merchants worldwide. Our vision is to democratize financial services, as we believe that managing and moving money is a right for all people, not just the affluent. Our goal is to increase our relevance for consumers and merchants to manage and move their money anywhere in the world, anytime, on any platform and using any device. Our combined payment solutions, including our PayPal, PayPal Credit, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom, and Paydiant products, compose our proprietary Payments Platform.

We operate globally and in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment characterized by a heightened regulatory focus on all aspects of the payments industry. That focus continues to become even more heightened as regulators on a global basis focus on such important issues as countering terrorist financing, anti-money laundering, privacy and consumer protection. Some of the laws and regulations to which we are subject were enacted recently, and the laws and regulations applicable to us, including those enacted prior to the advent of digital and mobile payments, are continuing to evolve through legislative and regulatory action and judicial interpretation. Non-compliance with laws and regulations, increased penalties and enforcement actions related to non-compliance, changes in laws and regulations or their interpretation, and the enactment of new laws and regulations applicable to us could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Therefore, we monitor these areas closely to ensure compliant solutions for our customers who depend on us.

The United Kingdom ("U.K.") held a referendum in June 2016 in which a majority of voters approved an exit from the European Union ("EU") (“Brexit”). In March 2017, the U.K. government gave formal notice of its intention to leave the EU and started the process of negotiating the future terms of the U.K.'s relationship with the EU. Brexit could adversely affect U.K., regional (including European) and worldwide economic and market conditions and could contribute to instability in global financial and foreign exchange markets, including volatility in the value of the British Pound and Euro.

We have foreign exchange exposure management programs designed to help reduce the impact from foreign currency rate movements. In 2017, 2016 and 2015, net revenues generated from our U.K. operations constituted 11%, 12% and 13%, respectively, of total net revenues. In 2017, 2016 and 2015, net revenues generated from the EU (excluding the U.K.) constituted approximately 20% of total net revenues. For additional information on how Brexit could affect our business, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the caption—“The United Kingdom’s departure from the EU could adversely affect us.”

Informatio

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Market risk is the potential for economic losses to be incurred on market risk sensitive instruments arising from adverse changes in market factors such as interest rates, foreign currency exchange rates and equity price risk. Management establishes and oversees the implementation of policies governing our investing, funding, and foreign currency derivative activities in order to mitigate market risks. We monitor risk exposures on an ongoing basis.

Interest Rate Risk

We are exposed to interest rate risk relating to our investment portfolio and from interest-rate sensitive assets underlying the customer balances we hold on our consolidated balance sheet as customer accounts. We seek to reduce earnings volatility that may result from changes in interest rates.

As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, approximately 39% and 25%, respectively, of our total cash and investment portfolio was held in cash and cash equivalents. The assets underlying the customer balances we hold on our consolidated balance sheet as customer accounts are maintained in interest and non-interest bearing bank deposits, time deposits, U.S. and foreign government and agency securities and corporate debt securities. We classify the assets underlying the customer balances as current based on their purpose and availability to fulfill our direct obligation under amounts due to customers. We seek to preserve principal while holding eligible liquid assets, as defined by applicable regulatory requirements and commercial law in the jurisdictions where we operate, equal to at least 100% of the aggregate amount of all customer balances. We do not pay interest on amounts due to customers.

In the fourth quarter of 2017, we entered into an unsecured $3.0 billion, 364 day delayed-draw term loan credit facility, which is available in up to three borrowings ("2017 Credit Agreement"). In the third quarter of 2015, we entered into a $2.0 billion senior unsecured credit facility maturing in 2020 ("2015 Credit Agreement"). The company maintains uncommitted credit facilities in various regions throughout the world, aggregating to approximately $250 million.

Borrowings under the 2017 Credit Agreement and 2015 Credit Agreement, if any, bear interest at floating rates. As a result, we will be exposed to fluctuations in interest rates to the extent of our borrowings. As of December 31, 2017, $1.0 billion was outstanding under the 2017 Credit Agreement at an interest rate of 2.78% (one month LIBOR plus a margin of 1.125%). Accordingly, at December 31, 2017, $2.0 billion of borrowing capacity was available for the purposes permitted by the 2017 Credit Agreement, subject to customary conditions to borrowing. As of December 31, 2017, no borrowings or letters of credit were outstanding under the 2015 Credit Agreement or uncommitted facilities.

Interest rates may also adversely impact our customers’ spending levels and ability and willingness to pay outstanding amounts owed to us. Higher interest rates often lead to higher payment obligations by customers to us and other lenders under mortgage, credit card and other consumer and merchant loans, which may reduce our customers’ ability to remain current on their obligations to us and therefore lead to increased delinquencies, charge-offs and allowance for loan and interest receivable, which could have an adverse effect on our net income.

A 100 basis point increase in interest rates would not have had a material impact on our financial assets or liabilities at December 31, 2017 and 2016.

Foreign Currency Risk

We have significant operations internationally that are denominated in foreign currencies, primarily the British Pound, Euro, Australian Dollar and Canadian Dollar, subjecting us to foreign currency risk which may adversely impact our financial results. We transact business in various foreign currencies and have significant international revenues and costs. In addition, we charge our international subsidiaries for their use of intellectual property and technology and for certain corporate services. Our cash flows, results of operations and certain of our intercompany balances that are exposed to foreign exchange rate fluctuations may differ materially from expectations, and we may record significant gains or losses due to foreign currency fluctuations and related hedging activities. We are generally a net receiver of foreign currencies and therefore benefit from a weakening of the U.S. dollar, and are adversely affected by a strengthening of the U.S. dollar, relative to foreign currencies.

We have a foreign exchange exposure management program designed to identify material foreign currency exposures, manage these exposures and reduce the potential effects of currency fluctuations on our reported consolidated cash flows and results of operations through the execution of foreign currency exchange contracts. These foreign currency exchange contracts are accounted for as derivative instruments; for additional details related to our foreign currency exchange contracts, please see “Note 8—Derivative Instruments” to the consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We use foreign exchange forward contracts to protect our forecasted U.S. dollar-equivalent earnings from adverse changes in foreign currency exchange rates. These hedging contracts reduce, but do not entirely eliminate, the impact of adverse currency exchange rate movements. We designate these contracts as cash flow hedges for accounting purposes. The effective portion of the derivative’s gain or loss is initially reported as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income (“AOCI”) and subsequently reclassified into revenue in the same period the forecasted transaction affects earnings. The ineffective portion of the unrealized gains and losses on these contracts, if any, is recorded immediately in earnings.

We considered the historical trends in currency exchange rates and determined that it was reasonably possible that changes in exchange rates of 20% for all currencies could be experienced in the near term. If the U.S. dollar weakened by 20% at December 31, 2017 and 2016, the amount recorded in AOCI related to our foreign currency exchange forward contracts, before taxes, would have been approximately $536 million and $341 million lower, respectively. If the U.S. dollar strengthened by 20% at December 31, 2017 and 2016, the amount recorded in AOCI related to our foreign currency exchange forward contracts, before taxes, would have been approximately $536 million and $341 million higher, respectively.

We have an additional foreign exchange management program whereby we use foreign currency exchange contracts to offset the foreign currency exchange risk on our assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the functional currency of our subsidiaries. These contracts are not designated as hedging instruments and reduce, but do not entirely eliminate, the impact of currency exchange rate movements on our assets and liabilities. The foreign currency gains and losses on our assets and liabilities are recorded in other income (expense), net, and are offset by the gains and losses on the foreign currency exchange contracts.

Adverse changes in exchange rates of 20% for all currencies would have resulted in an adverse impact on income before income taxes of approximately $243 million and $160 million at December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively, without considering the offsetting effect of hedging. Foreign currency exchange contracts in place as of December 31, 2017 would have positively impacted income before income taxes by approximately $211 million, resulting in a net negative impact of approximately $32 million. Foreign currency exchange contracts in place as of December 31, 2016 would have positively impacted income before income taxes by approximately $128 million, resulting in a net negative impact of approximately $32 million. These reasonably possible adverse changes in currency exchange rates of 20% were applied to total monetary assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the functional currencies of our subsidiaries at the balance sheet dates to compute the adverse impact these changes would have had on our income before income taxes in the near term.

Equity Price Risk

As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, our cost method investments totaled $88 million and $50 million, respectively, which represented approximately 1% of our total cash and investment portfolio and were primarily related to cost method investments in privately held companies. As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, we did not hold any marketable equity instruments. We review our investments for impairment when events and circumstances indicate a decline in fair value of such assets below carrying value is other-than-temporary. Our analysis includes a review of recent operating results and trends, recent sales and acquisitions of the securities in which we have invested and other publicly available data.

The audited consolidated financial statements covering the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 and accompanying notes listed in Part IV, Item 15(a)(1) of this Annual Report on Form 10‑K are included elsewhere in this report.

None.

Evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures. Based on the evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in the Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act), our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer have concluded that as of December 31, 2017, the end of the period covered by this report, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective.

Management's report on internal control over financial reporting. Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the framework in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on its evaluation under the framework in Internal Control - Integrated Framework, our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2017.

The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017 has been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report which appears in Item 15(a) of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Changes in internal controls over financial reporting. There were no changes in our internal controls over financial reporting as defined in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(f) that occurred during our most recently completed fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Not applicable.

PART III

Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after December 31, 2017.

Code of Ethics, Governance Guidelines and Committee Charters

We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics that applies to all PayPal employees and directors. We have also adopted a Code of Ethics for Senior Financial Officers that applies to our senior financial officers, including our principal executive officer, principal financial officer and principal accounting officer. The Code of Ethics for Senior Financial Officers is included in our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics posted on our website at https://investor.paypal-corp.com/corporate-governance.cfm. We will post any amendments to or waivers from the Code of Ethics for Senior Financial Officers at that location.

Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after December 31, 2017.

Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after December 31, 2017.

Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after December 31, 2017.

Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after December 31, 2017.

PART IV

(a) The following documents are filed as part of this report:

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of PayPal Holdings, Inc.

Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of PayPal Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, and the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, stockholders’ equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2017, including the related notes and schedule of valuation and qualifying accounts for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2017 appearing under Item 15(a)(2) (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). We also have audited the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2017 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the COSO.

Basis for Opinions

The Company's management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in Management's report on internal control over financial reporting appearing under Item 9A. Our responsibility is to express opinions on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and on the Company's internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) ("PCAOB") and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audits of the consolidated financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

/s/ PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

San Jose, California

February 7, 2018

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2000.

PayPal Holdings, Inc.

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

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