PayPal Holdings 10-K 2021-12-31

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.

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 Act:

None

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

Yes ☒ 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 ☒

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 ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted 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 such files). Yes ☒ 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.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

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

As of June 30, 2021, the aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $342.2 billion based on the closing sale price as reported on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.

As of January 28, 2022, there were 1,165,004,913 shares of common stock outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its 2022 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, 2021.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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, Xoom, Zettle, Hyperwallet, Honey, and Paidy, 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 (“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, mergers or acquisitions, or management strategies. Additionally, our forward-looking statements include expectations related to anticipated impacts of the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic. These forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as “may,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “project,” “forecast,” 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 Form 10-K, as well as in our consolidated financial statements, related notes, and the other information appearing in this report and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). We do not intend, and undertake no obligation except as required by law, 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 in this report.

OVERVIEW

PayPal Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in January 2015 and is a leading technology platform that enables digital payments and simplifies commerce experiences on behalf of merchants and consumers worldwide. PayPal is committed to democratizing financial services to help improve the financial health of individuals and to increase economic opportunity for entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes around the world. Our goal is to enable our merchants and consumers to manage and move their money anywhere in the world in the markets we serve, anytime, on any platform, and using any device when sending payments or getting paid. We believe that effective management of environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) risks and opportunities is essential to deliver on our mission and strategy. Our core values of Collaboration, Inclusion, Innovation, and Wellness are the driving forces behind our mission and form the foundation of our operating philosophy. We believe that they help stimulate the creativity and engagement of our global workforce to deliver products and services designed to meet the diverse needs of our customers. 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.

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PayPal’s payment solutions enable our customers to send and receive payments. We operate a global, two-sided network at scale that connects merchants and consumers with 426 million active accounts (consisting of 392 million consumer active accounts and 34 million merchant active accounts) across more than 200 markets. PayPal helps merchants and consumers connect, transact, and complete payments, whether they are online or in person. PayPal is more than a connection to third-party payment networks. We provide proprietary payment solutions accepted by merchants that enable the completion of payments on our payments platform on behalf of our customers.

We offer our customers the flexibility to use their accounts to purchase and receive payments for goods and services, as well as the ability to transfer and withdraw funds. We enable consumers to exchange funds more safely with merchants using a variety of funding sources, which may include a bank account, a PayPal or Venmo account balance, PayPal and Venmo branded credit products, a credit card, a debit card, certain cryptocurrencies, or other stored value products such as gift cards, and eligible credit card rewards. 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 and payouts. We also help merchants connect with their customers, process exchanges and returns, 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 cross-border trade.

We earn revenues primarily by charging fees for completing payment transactions for our customers and other payment-related services that are typically based on the volume of activity processed on our payments platform. We generally do not charge customers to fund or draw from their accounts; however, we generate revenue from customers on fees charged for foreign currency conversion, instant transfers from their PayPal or Venmo account to their debit card or bank account, and to facilitate the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies. We also earn revenue by providing other value added services, which comprises revenue earned through partnerships, interest and fees from our merchant and consumer credit products, referral fees, subscription fees, gateway services, and other services that we provide to our merchants and consumers.

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KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS

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

An active account is an account registered directly with PayPal or a platform access partner that has completed a transaction on our platform, not including gateway-exclusive transactions, within the past 12 months. A platform access partner is a third party whose customers are provided access to PayPal’s platform or services through such third-party’s login credentials, including entities that utilize Hyperwallet’s payout capabilities. A user may register on our platform to access different products and may register more than one account to access a product. Accordingly, a user may have more than one active account.

Number of payment transactions are the total number of payments, net of payment reversals, successfully completed on our payments platform or enabled by PayPal via a partner payment solution, not including gateway-exclusive transactions.

Total payment volume (“TPV”) is the value of payments, net of payment reversals, successfully completed on our payments platform or enabled by PayPal via a partner payment solution, not including gateway-exclusive transactions.

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:

• Two-sided network*—*our payments platform connecting merchants and consumers enables PayPal to offer unique end-to-end product experiences while gaining valuable insights into how customers use our platform. Our payments platform provides for digital and in-store (at the point of sale) transactions while being both technology and platform agnostic.

*•Scale—*our global scale helps us to drive organic growth. As of December 31, 2021, we had 426 million active accounts, consisting of 392 million consumer active accounts and 34 million merchant active accounts in more than 200 markets around the world. A market is a geographic area or political jurisdiction, such as a country, territory, or protectorate, in which we offer some or all of our products and services. A country, territory, or protectorate is identified by a distinct set of laws and regulations. In 2021, we processed $1.25 trillion of TPV.

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• Trusted brands*—*we have built and strengthened well-recognized and trusted brands, including PayPal, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom, Zettle, and Honey. Our communications and marketing efforts across multiple geographies and demographic groups play an important role in building brand visibility, usage, and overall preference among customers.

• Risk and compliance management*—*our enterprise risk and compliance management program and use of tokenization are designed to help secure customer information, and to help ensure we process legitimate transactions around the world, while identifying and minimizing illegal, high-risk, or fraudulent transactions.

• Regulatory licenses*—*we believe that our regulatory licenses, which enable us to operate in markets around the world, are a distinct advantage and help support business growth.

MERCHANT AND CONSUMER PAYMENT SOLUTIONS

Merchant value proposition

We partner with our merchants to help grow and expand their businesses by providing global reach and powering all aspects of digital checkout. We offer alternative payment methods, including access to credit solutions, provide fraud prevention and risk management solutions, reduce losses through proprietary protection programs, and offer tools and insights for utilizing data analytics to attract new customers and improve sales conversion. We employ a technology and platform agnostic approach intended to enable merchants of all sizes to quickly and easily provide digital checkout online and in-store across all platforms and devices and to securely and simply receive payments from their customers.

PayPal’s payments platform enables merchants to accept all types of online and offline payments, including those made with the PayPal and Venmo digital wallets, our consumer credit products, credit cards and debit cards, and other competitor digital wallets, as well as other popular local payment methods. Our diversified suite of products and services is tailored to meet the needs of merchants regardless of their size or business complexity. We have expanded our merchant value proposition to enable payment acceptance at the point of sale through our PayPal and Venmo digital wallets, quick response (“QR”) code-based solutions, and our Zettle point of sale solutions. We aim to offer a seamless, omni-channel solution that helps merchants manage and grow their business. Through our consumer focused offerings, we provide simplified and personalized shopping experiences for consumers, including the ability to easily make exchanges and returns, to help merchants drive increased conversion through higher consumer engagement.

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We offer access to merchant finance products for certain small and medium-sized businesses through the PayPal Working Capital and PayPal Business Loan products, which we collectively refer to as our merchant finance offerings. The PayPal Working Capital product allows businesses to access a loan or cash advance for a fixed fee and based on their annual payment volume processed by PayPal. The PayPal Business Loan product provides businesses with short-term financing for a fixed fee based on an evaluation of both the applying business as well as the business owner. In the United States (“U.S.”), these products are provided under a program agreement with WebBank. We believe that these merchant finance offerings enable us to deepen our engagement with our existing small and medium-sized merchants and expand services to new merchants by providing access to capital that may not be available effectively or efficiently from traditional banks or other lending providers.

Our acquisition of Paidy, Inc. (“Paidy”) enables us to expand our buy now, pay later solutions and other capabilities in Japan. Our acquisition of Guofubao Information Technology Co. (GoPay), Ltd., a holder of payment business licenses in China, enables us to partner with Chinese financial institutions and technology platforms to provide a more comprehensive set of payment solutions to merchants and consumers, both in China and globally.

We generate revenues from merchants primarily by charging fees for completing their payment transactions and other payment-related services. We also earn revenues from interest and fees earned on our merchant loans receivables.

Consumer value proposition

We focus on providing affordable, convenient, and secure consumer financial products and services intended to democratize the management and movement of money. We provide consumers with a digital wallet that enables them to send payments to merchants more safely using a variety of funding sources, which may include a bank account, a PayPal account balance, a Venmo account balance, our consumer credit products, credit cards, debit cards, certain cryptocurrencies, or other stored value products such as gift cards, and eligible credit card rewards.

We also offer consumers person-to-person (“P2P”) payment solutions through our PayPal, Venmo, and Xoom products and services. We enable both domestic and international P2P transfers across our payments platform. Our Venmo digital wallet in the U.S. is a leading mobile application used to move money between our customers and to make purchases at select merchants. Xoom is an international money transfer service that enables our customers to send money and prepaid mobile phone reloads to, and pay bills for, people around the world in a secure, fast, and cost-effective way. P2P is a significant customer acquisition channel that facilitates organic growth by enabling potential PayPal users to establish active accounts with us at the time they make or receive a P2P payment. We also simplify and personalize shopping experiences for our consumers by offering tools for product discovery, price-tracking, offers, and easier exchanges and returns, which enhances consumer engagement and sales conversion for our merchants.

We offer credit products to consumers in certain markets as a potential funding source at checkout. Once a consumer is approved for credit, the product is made available as a funding source for that account holder. The U.S. PayPal- and Venmo-branded consumer credit program is offered through Synchrony Bank. We offer a PayPal-issued PayPal Credit product in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) and a PayPal branded consumer credit card issued by Citigroup in Australia. In addition, we have expanded our consumer credit offerings to include buy now, pay later installment products in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Australia, Spain, Italy, and through the acquisition of Paidy, in Japan. A key attribute of our buy now, pay later products is the absence of consumer late fees for missed payments in most of the geographies where we offer it. We believe that our consumer credit products help enable us to increase engagement with consumers and merchants on our two-sided network.

We have expanded our consumer value proposition through enhancements to the PayPal and Venmo digital wallets, which provide increased functionality for consumers to explore deals and offers and to more easily transact with cryptocurrencies in certain markets. Our goal is to drive increased consumer engagement by providing consumers with a comprehensive set of services to manage their finances and enhancing their ability to shop online and in person.

We generate revenue from consumers on fees charged for foreign currency conversion, instant transfers from their PayPal or Venmo account to their debit card or bank account, to facilitate the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies, interest, fees, or other revenue from credit product programs, and other miscellaneous fees.

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PROTECTING MERCHANTS AND CONSUMERS

Protecting merchants and consumers on our payments platform from financial and fraud loss is imperative to successfully competing and sustainably growing our business. Fraudulent activities, such as account takeover, identity theft (including stolen financial information), and counterparty malicious activities, represent a significant risk to merchants and consumers, as well as their payment partners. We provide merchants and consumers with protection programs for certain purchase transactions completed on our payments platform. We believe that these programs, which help protect both merchants and consumers from financial loss resulting from fraud and counterparty non-performance, are generally consistent with or broader than protections provided by other participants in the payments industry. These programs are designed to promote confidence on both the part of consumers, who will only be required to pay if they receive their purchased item in the condition significantly as described, and merchants, who will receive payment for the product they deliver to the customer.

Our ability to protect both merchants and consumers is based largely on our proprietary, end-to-end payments platform and our ability to utilize the data from both sides of transactions on our two-sided network, specifically from buyers and sellers and from senders and receivers of payments. 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, continuously changing, highly innovative, and increasingly subject to regulatory scrutiny and oversight. Many of the areas in which we compete evolve rapidly with innovative and disruptive technologies, shifting user preferences and needs, price sensitivity of merchants and consumers, and frequent introductions of new products and services. Competition also may intensify as new competitors emerge, businesses enter into business combinations and partnerships, and established companies in other segments expand to become competitive with various aspects of our business.

We compete with a wide range of businesses. Some of our current and potential competitors are or may be larger than we are, have larger customer bases, greater brand recognition, longer operating histories, a dominant or more secure position, broader geographic scope, volume, scale, resources, and market share than we do, or offer products and services that we do not offer. Other competitors are or may be smaller or younger companies that may be more agile in responding quickly to regulatory and technological changes.

We differentiate ourselves to merchants through our ability to innovate and develop products and services that offer new payment experiences for our merchants, demonstrate that they may achieve incremental sales by using and offering our services to consumers, support transactions on our payments platform across varied technologies and payment methods, through the simplicity and transparency of our fee structure, and our seller protection programs. In addition, we differentiate ourselves to consumers through the ability to use our products and services across multiple commerce channels, including e-commerce, mobile, and payments at the point of sale, and without sharing their financial information with the merchant or any other party they are paying; our customer service, dispute resolution, and buyer protection programs; and our ability to simplify and personalize shopping experiences. We invest resources towards improving our products and services, offering choice in payment options, providing excellent customer service, and building brands that merchants and consumers trust.

Our business faces competition from a wide range of businesses and from all forms of physical and electronic payments. We face competition from banks and financial institutions, which provide traditional payment methods (particularly credit cards and debit cards (collectively, “payment cards”), electronic bank transfers, and credit), payment networks that facilitate payments for payment cards or proprietary retail networks, payment card processors, and “card on file” services. We also face competition from providers offering a variety of payment products and services including tokenized and contactless payment cards, digital wallets and mobile payments solutions, credit, installment or other buy now pay later methods, real-time payment systems, P2P payments and money remittance services, card readers and other devices or technologies for payment at point of sale, virtual currencies and distributed ledger technologies, and tools that simplify and personalize shopping experiences for consumers and merchants. Our products and services face competition from all forms of payments, which include paper-based payments (primarily cash and checks), credit cards, debit cards, electronic bank transfers, credit, installment methods, digital wallets and mobile payment solutions, contactless payments (including contactless cards, tokenized cards, Near Field Communication based solutions, and QR code-based solutions), and virtual currencies, such as cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.

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

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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 and introduce new products and services that merchants and consumers value. Our strategy to drive growth in our business includes the following:

• Growing our core business: through expanding our global capabilities, customer base and scale, increasing our customers’ use of our products and services by better addressing their everyday needs related to accessing, managing, and moving money, creating seamless checkout experiences, and expanding the adoption of our solutions by merchants and consumers;

• Expanding our value proposition for merchants and consumers: by being technology and platform agnostic, partnering with our merchants to grow and expand their business online and in-store, and providing consumers with simple, secure, and flexible ways to manage and move money across different markets, merchants, and platforms and simplifying their shopping experiences;

• Forming strategic partnerships: by building new strategic partnerships to provide better experiences for our customers, offer greater choice and flexibility, acquire new customers, and reinforce our role in the payments ecosystem; and

• Seeking new areas of growth: organically and through acquisitions and strategic investments in our existing and new international markets around the world and focusing on innovation in both the digital and physical world.

ESG MANAGEMENT

PayPal is committed to creating a more inclusive global economy and advancing our core values of Collaboration, Inclusion, Innovation, and Wellness across our communities, workforce, and strategies. We manage priority ESG risks and opportunities through four key pillars: (1) social innovation, (2) employees and culture, (3) environmental sustainability, and (4) responsible business practices. We believe this integrated, enterprise-wide approach to managing our global business responsibly helps to enable us to create value for all of our stakeholders, including our employees, stockholders, partners, and communities. In 2021, we continued to advance our ESG strategy, including through the following: a science-based approach to reducing our climate change impacts, targeted investments to address the racial wealth gap and empower underserved communities and businesses, programmatic development intended to foster an inclusive culture across the employee lifecycle, and ongoing enhancements to support the safety and security of our products and platform. We take this commitment seriously and endeavor to provide transparent disclosures on the progress of this work through our annual Global Impact Report and other communications.

TECHNOLOGY

Our payments platform utilizes a combination of proprietary and third-party technologies and services intended to facilitate transactions efficiently and securely between millions of merchants and consumers worldwide across different channels, markets, and networks. Our payments platform connects with financial service providers 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 around the world 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, transaction completion databases, and network applications on our payments platform designed to enable our customers to 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’ information.

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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 in both our own data centers and when hosted by third party cloud service providers. Our technology infrastructure is designed around industry best practices intended to reduce downtime and help ensure the resiliency of our payments platform in the event of outages or catastrophic occurrences. Our payments platform incorporates multiple layers of protection for business continuity and system redundancy purposes and to help mitigate cybersecurity risks. We have a comprehensive cybersecurity program designed to protect our technology infrastructure and payments platform against cybersecurity threats, which includes regularly testing our systems to identify and 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.

For additional information regarding risks relating to our technology infrastructure and cybersecurity, see the information in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the captions “Cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities could result in serious harm to our reputation, business, and financial condition” and “Business interruptions or systems failures may impair the availability of our websites, applications, products or services, or otherwise harm our business.”

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Our total research and development expense was $1.6 billion, $1.4 billion, and $1.1 billion in 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The protection of our intellectual property, including our trademarks, copyrights, domain names, trade dress, patents, and trade secrets, is important to the success of our business. We seek to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on applicable laws, regulations, and administrative procedures in the U.S. and internationally. We have registered our core brands as domain names and as trademarks in the U.S. and many international jurisdictions. We also have an active program to continue to secure and enforce trademarks and domain names that correspond to our brands in markets of interest. We have filed and continue to file patent applications in the U.S. and in international jurisdictions covering certain aspects of our proprietary technology and new innovations. 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 use and disclosure of, our proprietary information.

For additional information regarding risks relating to our intellectual property, see the information in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” under the captions “Third parties may allege that we are infringing their patents and other intellectual property rights” and “We may be unable to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights.”

GOVERNMENT REGULATION

We operate globally and in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment characterized by a heightened focus by regulators globally on all aspects of the payments industry, including countering terrorist financing, anti-money laundering, privacy, cybersecurity, and consumer protection. The laws and regulations applicable to us, including those enacted prior to the advent of digital payments, are continuing to evolve through legislative and regulatory action and judicial interpretation. New or changing laws and regulations, including changes to their interpretation or implementation, as well as increased penalties and enforcement actions related to non-compliance, could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. We monitor these areas closely and are focused on designing compliant solutions for our customers.

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

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Payments regulation. Various laws and regulations govern the payments industry in the U.S. and internationally. In the U.S., PayPal, Inc. (a wholly-owned subsidiary) holds licenses to operate as a money transmitter (or its equivalent) in the states where such licenses are required, as well as in the District of Columbia and certain territories. These licenses include not only the PayPal branded products and services offered in these locations, but also our Venmo, Hyperwallet, and Xoom products and services to the extent offered in these locations. As a licensed money transmitter, PayPal is subject to, among other requirements, restrictions with respect to the investment of customer funds, reporting requirements, bonding requirements, and inspection by state regulatory agencies. In certain cases, these licenses also generally cover PayPal’s service enabling customers to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency directly from their PayPal or Venmo account. In the State of New York, PayPal has obtained a conditional virtual currency license from the New York Department of Financial Services to offer cryptocurrency services in the state in partnership with Paxos Trust Company.

Outside the U.S., we provide similar services customized for various countries and foreign jurisdictions through our 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 U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the People’s Bank of China, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Reserve Bank of India, the Central Bank of Russia, and the Central Bank of Brazil have asserted jurisdiction over some or all of our activities in their respective jurisdictions. This list is not exhaustive, and 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.

In addition, financial services regulators in various jurisdictions, including the U.S. and the European Union (“EU”), have implemented authentication requirements for banks and payment processors intended to reduce online fraud, which could impose significant costs, make it more difficult for new customers to join PayPal, and reduce the ease of use of our products.

Banking agency supervision. We serve our customers in the EU and U.K. through PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. et Cie, S.C.A. (“PayPal (Europe)”), a wholly-owned subsidiary that is licensed and subject to regulation as a bank in Luxembourg by the CSSF. Under the U.K.’s Temporary Permissions Regime, PayPal is also deemed to be authorized and regulated by the U.K. FCA as a result of Brexit. Consequently, we must comply with rules and regulations of the European banking industry, including those related to capitalization, funds management, corporate governance, anti-money laundering, disclosure, reporting, and inspection. We 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 the regulators of these financial institutions.

Lending regulation. PayPal’s U.S. consumer installment loan product is subject to federal and state laws governing consumer credit and debt collection. PayPal holds multiple state licenses as the lender of this product. PayPal Ratenzahlung, a regulated installment loan for consumers in Germany, is subject to applicable local laws such as consumer (lending) laws, consumer protection, or banking transparency regulations. Paidy, Inc. holds multiple licenses for the issuance of their short-term installment products in Japan and is registered with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as a Comprehensive Credit Purchase Intermediary. In Australia, PayPal Credit Pty Limited offers a consumer short-term installment product that is exempt from regulation by the primary consumer credit legislation but is subject to other laws which cover the provision of financial services, credit reporting, debt collection, and privacy. PayPal’s consumer buy now, pay later installment loan products in the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, and Italy are generally exempt from primary consumer credit legislation; however, certain consumer lending laws, consumer protection, or banking transparency regulations continue to apply to this activity.

PayPal and Venmo co-branded consumer credit cards and the PayPal Credit consumer credit product are issued by Synchrony Bank in the U.S. and the PayPal branded consumer credit card is issued by Citigroup in Australia, and are subject to laws and regulations governing these programs. PayPal Credit in the U.K. is a regulated, revolving consumer credit product subject to applicable local laws and regulations.

Our merchant finance offerings are subject to the applicable laws and regulations governing those programs, which differ by jurisdiction.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”). The CFPB has significant authority to regulate consumer financial products in the U.S., including consumer credit, deposits, payments, and similar products. As a large market participant of remittance transfers, the CFPB has direct supervisory authority over our business. The CFPB and 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.

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Anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and sanctions. 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 payments platform 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 and equivalent authorities in other countries. Our AML and sanctions compliance programs, overseen by our AML/Bank Secrecy Act Officer, are composed of policies, procedures, and internal controls, and are 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 EU, the Multilateral Interchange Fee Regulation caps interchange fees for credit and debit card payments and provides for business rules to be complied with by any company dealing with payment 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. We are subject to a number of laws, rules, directives, and regulations (“privacy and data protection laws”) relating to the collection, use, retention, security, processing, and transfer (collectively, “processing”) of personally identifiable information about our customers, our merchants’ customers, and employees (“personal data”) in the countries where we operate. Our business relies on the processing of personal data in many jurisdictions and the movement of data across national borders. As a result, much of the personal data that we process, which may include certain financial information associated with individuals, is subject to one or more privacy and data protection laws in one or more jurisdictions. In many cases, these laws apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between or among us, our subsidiaries, and other parties with which we have commercial relationships. The EU has adopted a comprehensive General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), which expanded the scope of the EU data protection law to foreign companies processing personal data of European Economic Area (“EEA”) individuals and imposed a stricter data protection compliance regime. In the U.S., we are subject to privacy and information safeguarding requirements under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act as well as the California Consumer Privacy Act, which requires privacy protections comparable to those afforded by the GDPR, as well as the maintenance of a written, comprehensive information security program. In Europe, the operations of our Luxembourg bank are subject to confidentiality and information safeguarding requirements under the Luxembourg Banking Act.

Regulatory scrutiny of privacy, data protection, cybersecurity practices, and the processing of personal data is increasing around the world. Regulatory authorities are continuously considering numerous legislative and regulatory proposals and interpretive guidelines that may contain additional privacy and data protection obligations. In addition, the interpretation and application of these privacy and data protection laws in the U.S., 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 laws in the jurisdictions in which we operate. 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 and implement laws governing a wide variety of issues, including virtual currencies, identity theft, account management guidelines, disclosure rules, cybersecurity, and marketing, which may impact PayPal’s business. Certain governments around the world are adopting laws and regulations pertaining to ESG performance, transparency, and reporting, including those related to overall corporate ESG disclosures (e.g., EU Sustainable Reporting Directive) as well as topical reporting requirements, such as reporting on climate-related financial disclosures.

For an additional discussion on governmental regulation affecting our business, please see “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and “Item 3. Legal Proceedings” included in this Form 10-K.

HUMAN CAPITAL

Global talent management

At PayPal, we consider the management of our global talent (human capital) to be essential to the ongoing success of our business. As of December 31, 2021, we employed approximately 30,900 people globally, representing approximately 150 nationalities, in approximately 30 countries, including approximately 13,100 located in the U.S.

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Attracting, recruiting, developing, and retaining diverse talent enables us to provide our customers with products and services that help them to thrive in the global economy, and serve our other stakeholders. We are focused on supporting our employees across the full employee lifecycle from recruitment to onboarding to ongoing development, and have implemented programs designed to promote their total wellness, particularly during difficult times such as the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, in 2021, we continued to invest in employee mental wellness by providing workplace flexibility to reflect the diverse needs of our global workforce and appointing a Global Wellness Advocate.

Employee engagement

We use employee feedback to directly inform the ongoing development of our employee programs. In addition to administering an annual survey to gather input from our global workforce, we also conducted specific surveys to gather direct employee feedback on our annual performance program and evolving workplace preferences. For our 2021 annual employee survey, we heard from 79% of our global employees. Our engagement score, which reflects employees that would recommend PayPal to their peers and/or are happy at PayPal was 83%, which is above our technology peer benchmark. Our score measuring intent to stay was 80%, which reflects an employee’s expectation to remain employed with the company in two years. Additionally, we observed improvements in employee scores regarding effective collaboration and work life balance, two areas we focused on advancing in 2021. We also evaluate employee survey responses for feedback on other key components of our culture and programs. The detailed scores are shared across the organization and analyzed to understand differences by geography, demographics, and job level, and to identify opportunities for further improvement. For example, in 2021, we focused on enhancing our employee communications and opportunities to better support ongoing remote working.

Talent acquisition, development, and retention

As a leading technology platform that enables digital payments and simplifies commerce experiences, we compete for top global talent around the world. We believe that a strong culture focused on employee experiences that enables advancement, learning, and individual career insights is essential to the successful acquisition, development, and retention of diverse talent. To that end, we have implemented programs focused on inclusive hiring practices, enriched virtual new hire experiences, individual coaching and mentorship programs, and ongoing learning opportunities, including unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning. In 2021, we expanded our new employee development program with specific topical training sessions, including mobility and developing women in leadership. We also listened to employee feedback and sought opportunities to reduce employee stress and formalized the removal of individual performance ratings as part of our annual performance review process, which we believe has led to more meaningful performance conversations.

Employee wellness

We remain focused on promoting the holistic well-being of our employees, including resources, programs, and services to support our employees’ physical, mental, and financial wellness. In 2021, we recognized the ongoing impact the COVID-19 pandemic was having on our global employees. In response, we continued our Global Wellness Days for all employees to take time to rest and recharge, expanded our Mind Yourself program to provide trainings and workshops to foster emotional well-being, preserved flexible work arrangements through Crisis Leave and other programs, and strategically extended employee benefits to additional global markets. We also continued our investments to strengthen employee financial wellness, including expanding individual financial coaching, broadening employee access to early earned wages across the U.S. and additional global markets, and promoting the prioritization of employee financial health across the private sector through the Worker Financial Wellness Initiative.

Diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging

We believe that fostering diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging (“DIE&B”) is critical to our global talent strategy and pivotal to building a culture that embraces individual characteristics, values diversity, minimizes barriers, and enhances feelings of security and support across the workplace. We are committed to equal pay for equal work, promoting enterprise-wide inclusive learning opportunities, and partnering with leading organizations to embed DIE&B considerations into our talent strategy. Our strong commitment to DIE&B is evident at all levels of the organization from our Board of Directors to our executive leadership team to our global workforce. As of December 31, 2021, 50% of our Board and 56% of our senior leadership team identified as women and/or from a diverse ethnic group. Across our workforce, we reached 56% overall diverse workforce representation, including 44% global gender diversity and 52% U.S. ethnic diversity, as of December 31, 2021.

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Workforce representation is only one aspect of our broader DIE&B strategy. We also empower eight employee resource groups to promote community and belonging for employees that identify as Black, Latinx/Hispanic, women, interfaith, veterans, LGBTQ+, Asian, and disabled persons and their allies. These groups drive ongoing employee engagement around the world for all employees, regardless of background, to support and champion their peers and related causes. In 2021, we continued our support for underrepresented communities and employees through activities such as enhanced strategic partnerships, a new inclusive learning journey, and new tools and resources to promote DIE&B considerations across the business. We also enhanced our executive compensation framework and annual performance evaluations to integrate DIE&B considerations as part of the individual performance portion of our 2021 annual incentive program for our senior executives.

As part of our annual ESG reporting, we provide additional information on our global talent strategy, including detailed representation metrics, in our Global Impact Report available at https://about.pypl.com/values-in-action/reporting/global-impact-report/default.aspx.

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 https://investor.pypl.com. From time to time, we may use our investor relations site and other online and social media channels, including the PayPal Newsroom (https://newsroom.paypal-corp.com/), Twitter handles (@PayPal and @PayPalNews), 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/), John Rainey’s LinkedIn profile (www.linkedin.com/in/john-rainey-pypl), Dan Schulman’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/DanSchulmanPayPal/), and Dan Schulman’s Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/dan_schulman/) as a means of disclosing information about the Company and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation Fair Disclosure. Our 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 SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. The content of our websites and information 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 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.

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You should carefully review this section in addition to the other information appearing in this Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes, for important information regarding risks and uncertainties that affect us. 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 occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and future prospects could be materially and adversely affected.

CYBERSECURITY AND TECHNOLOGY RISKS

Cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities could result in serious harm to our reputation, business, and financial condition.

The techniques used to attempt to obtain unauthorized or illegal access to systems and information (including customers’ personal data), disable or degrade service, exploit vulnerabilities, or sabotage systems are constantly evolving, and in some circumstances may not be recognized or detected until after they have been launched against a target. Unauthorized parties have attempted, and we expect that they will continue to attempt, to gain access to our systems or facilities through various means, including, but not limited to, hacking into our systems or facilities or those of our customers, partners, or vendors, and attempting to fraudulently induce users of our systems (including employees and customers) into disclosing user names, passwords, payment card information, or other sensitive information used to gain access to such systems or facilities. This information may in turn be used to access our customers’ personal or proprietary information and payment card data that are stored on or accessible through our information technology systems and those of third parties with whom we partner. Numerous and evolving cybersecurity threats, including advanced and persisting cyberattacks, cyberextortion, distributed denial-of-service attacks, ransomware, spear phishing and social engineering schemes, the introduction of computer viruses or other malware, and the physical destruction of all or portions of our information technology and infrastructure and those of third parties with whom we partner could compromise the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of the data in our systems. We have experienced from time to time, and may experience in the future, breaches of our security measures due to human error, malfeasance, insider threats, system errors or vulnerabilities, or other irregularities. We believe that PayPal is a particularly attractive target for cybercriminals due to our name, brand recognition, types of data (including payments-related data) that customers provide to us, and the widespread adoption and use of our products and services.

Any cyberattacks or data security breaches affecting the information technology or infrastructure of companies we acquire or of our customers, partners, or vendors (including data center and cloud computing providers) could have similar negative effects. For example, in November 2017, we suspended the operations of TIO Networks (“TIO”) (acquired in July 2017) as part of an investigation of security vulnerabilities of the TIO platform. In December 2017, we announced that we had identified evidence of unauthorized access to TIO’s network and the potential compromise of personally identifiable information for approximately 1.6 million TIO customers. This incident resulted in governmental inquiries and civil claims against us and may lead to additional inquiries and claims in the future.

Under payment card network rules and our contracts with our payment processors, if there is a breach of payment card information that we store, or that is stored by our direct payment card processing vendors, we could be liable to the payment card issuing banks for their cost of issuing new cards and related expenses. Cybersecurity breaches and other exploited security vulnerabilities could subject us to significant costs and liabilities, result in improper disclosure of data and violations of applicable privacy and other laws, require us to change our business practices, cause us to incur significant remediation costs, lead to loss of customer confidence in, or decreased use of, our products and services, damage our reputation and brands, divert the attention of management from the operation of our business, result in significant compensation or contractual penalties from us to our customers and their business partners as a result of losses to or claims by them, or expose us to regulatory penalties and fines. While we maintain insurance policies intended to offset the financial impact we may experience from these risks, our coverage may be insufficient to compensate us for all losses caused by security breaches and other damage to or unavailability of our systems.

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Business interruptions or systems failures may impair the availability of our websites, applications, products or services, or otherwise harm our business.

Our systems and operations and those of our service providers and partners have experienced from time to time, and may experience in the future, business interruptions or degradation because of distributed denial-of-service and other cyberattacks, insider threats, hardware and software defects or malfunctions, human error, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, and other natural disasters, public health crises (including pandemics), power losses, disruptions in telecommunications services, fraud, military or political conflicts, terrorist attacks, computer viruses or other malware, or other events. The frequency and intensity of weather events related to climate change are increasing, which could increase the likelihood and severity of such disasters as well as related damage and business interruption. Our corporate headquarters are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a seismically active region in California. A catastrophic event that results in a disruption or failure of our systems or operations could result in significant losses and require substantial recovery time and significant expenditures to resume or maintain operations, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Additionally, some of our systems, including those of companies we have acquired, are not fully redundant, and our disaster recovery planning may not be sufficient for all possible outcomes or events. As a provider of payments solutions, we are subject to heightened scrutiny by regulators that may require specific business continuity, resiliency and disaster recovery plans, and rigorous testing of such plans, which may be costly and time-consuming to implement, and may divert our resources from other business priorities.

We have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, system failures, cyberattacks, unplanned outages, and other events or conditions from time to time that have and may interrupt the availability, or reduce or adversely affect the speed or functionality, of our products and services. These events have resulted and likely will continue to result in loss of revenue. A prolonged interruption in the availability or reduction in the availability, speed, or functionality of our products and services could materially harm our business. Frequent or persistent interruptions in our services could permanently harm our relationship with our customers and partners and our reputation. Moreover, if any system failure or similar event results in damage to our customers

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None.

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We own and lease various properties in the United States (“U.S.”) and other countries around the world. We use the properties for executive and administrative offices, customer services and operations centers, product development offices, warehouses, and data centers. As of December 31, 2021, our owned and leased properties provided us with aggregate square footage as follows:

We own a total of approximately 106 acres of land, with approximately 85 acres in the U.S. Our corporate headquarters are located in San Jose, California and occupy approximately 0.7 million of owned square feet.

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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 Form 10-K is incorporated herein by reference.

Not applicable.

PART II

COMMON STOCK

PayPal common stock is quoted on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “PYPL.”

As of January 28, 2022, there were 4,103 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

In July 2018, our Board of Directors authorized a stock repurchase program that provides for the repurchase of up to $10 billion of our common stock, with no expiration from the date of authorization. Our stock repurchase program is 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 program may be made through open market transactions, block trades, privately negotiated transactions including accelerated share repurchase agreements 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. Moreover, any stock repurchases are subject to market conditions and other uncertainties and we cannot predict if or when any stock repurchases will be made. We may terminate our stock repurchase program at any time without prior notice.

The stock repurchase activity under our stock repurchase program during the three months ended December 31, 2021 is summarized as follows:

(1) Average price paid per share for open market purchases includes broker commissions.

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This 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, mergers or acquisitions, or management strategies). Additionally, our forward-looking statements include expectations related to anticipated impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. These forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as “may,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “project,” “forecast,” 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 Form 10-K, as well as in our consolidated financial statements, related notes, and the other information appearing in this report and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). We do not intend, and undertake no obligation except as required by law, 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 in this report. Unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires, references to “we,” “our,” “us,” “the Company,” and “PayPal” refer to PayPal Holdings, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.

This Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations focuses on discussion of 2021 results as compared to 2020 results. For discussion of 2020 results as compared to 2019 results, see “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” within our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 filed with the SEC on February 5, 2021.

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

THE COMPANY

We are a leading technology platform that enables digital payments and simplifies commerce experiences on behalf of merchants and consumers worldwide. PayPal is committed to democratizing financial services to help improve the financial health of individuals and to increase economic opportunity for entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes around the world. Our goal is to enable our merchants and consumers to manage and move their money anywhere in the world in the markets we serve, anytime, on any platform, and using any device when sending payments or getting paid, including person-to-person payments.

Regulatory environment

We operate globally and in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment characterized by a heightened focus by regulators globally on all aspects of the payments industry, including countering terrorist financing, anti-money laundering, privacy, cybersecurity, and consumer protection. The laws and regulations applicable to us, including those enacted prior to the advent of digital payments, are continuing to evolve through legislative and regulatory action and judicial interpretation. New or changing laws and regulations, including changes to their interpretation and implementation, as well as increased penalties and enforcement actions related to non-compliance, could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. We monitor these areas closely and are focused on designing compliant solutions for our customers.

Information security

Information security risks for global payments and technology companies like us have increased significantly in recent years. Although we have developed systems and processes designed to protect the data we manage, prevent data loss and other security incidents and effectively respond to known and potential risks, and expect to continue to expend significant resources to bolster these protections, we remain subject to these risks and there can be no assurance that our security measures will provide sufficient security or prevent breaches or attacks. For additional information regarding our information security risks, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities could result in serious harm to our reputation, business, and financial condition.”

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COVID-19

The coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic has resulted in government authorities and businesses throughout the world implementing numerous measures intended to contain and limit the spread of COVID-19, including travel restrictions, border closures, quarantines, shelter-in-place and lock-down orders, mask and social distancing requirements, and business limitations and shutdowns. The spread of COVID-19 and increased variants has caused, and may continue to cause us to make significant modifications to our business practices, including enabling most of our workforce to work from home, establishing strict health and safety protocols for our offices, restricting physical participation in meetings, events, and conferences, and imposing restrictions on employee travel. We will continue to actively monitor the situation and may take further actions that alter our business practices as may be required by federal, state, or local authorities or that we determine are in the best interests of our employees, customers, or business partners.

The spread of COVID-19 has also accelerated the shift from in-store shopping and traditional in-store payment methods (e.g., cash) towards e-commerce and digital payments and resulted in increased customer demand for safer payment and delivery solutions (e.g., contactless payment methods, buy online and pick up in store) and significant increases in online spending in certain verticals that have historically had a strong in-store presence. On balance, our business has benefited from these behavioral shifts. To the extent that consumers revert to pre-COVID-19 behaviors as the pandemic-related restrictions lessen, our business, financial condition, and results of operations would be adversely impacted.

The rapidly changing global market and economic conditions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted, and are expected to continue to impact, our operations and business. The broader implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and related global economic unpredictability on our business, financial condition, and results of operations remain uncertain. For additional information on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted and could continue to negatively impact our business, see below for specific discussion in the respective areas, and also refer to “Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors” in this Form 10-K.

BREXIT

The United Kingdom (“U.K.”) formally exited the European Union (“EU”) and the European Economic Area (“EEA”) on January 31, 2020 (commonly referred to as “Brexit”) with the expiration of the transition period on December 31, 2020. PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. et Cie, SCA (“PayPal (Europe)”) operates in the U.K. within the scope of its passport permissions (as they stood at the end of the transition period) under the Temporary Permissions Regime pending the gra

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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 investment risk. Management establishes and oversees the implementation of policies governing our investing, funding, and foreign currency derivative activities intended 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 sheets as customer accounts.

As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, approximately 40% and 30%, respectively, of our total cash, cash equivalents, and investment portfolio (excluding restricted cash and strategic investments) was held in cash and cash equivalents. The assets underlying the customer balances that we hold on our consolidated balance sheets as customer accounts are maintained in interest and non-interest bearing bank deposits, time deposits, and available-for-sale debt securities. We seek to preserve principal while holding eligible liquid assets, as defined by applicable regulatory requirements and commercial law in certain 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.

If interest rates increased by 100 basis points, the fair value of our available-for-sale debt securities investment portfolio would have decreased by approximately $272 million and $173 million at December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.

As of December 31, 2021, we had $9.0 billion in fixed rate debt with varying maturity dates. Since these notes bear interest at fixed rates, they do not result in any financial statement risk associated with changes in interest rates. However, the fair value of these notes fluctuates when interest rates change. As of December 31, 2021, we also had revolving credit facilities of approximately $5.2 billion available to us. We are obligated to pay interest on borrowings under these facilities as well as other customary fees, including an upfront fee and an unused commitment fee based on our debt rating. Borrowings under these facilities, if any, bear interest at floating rates. As a result, we are exposed to the risk related to fluctuations in interest rate to the extent of our borrowings. As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately $98 million outstanding under these credit facilities. No amounts were outstanding as of December 31, 2020. For additional information, see “Note 12—Debt” in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in this Form 10-K.

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 larger payment obligations by customers of our credit products to us, or to 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 allowances for loans and interest receivable, which could have an adverse effect on our net income.

FOREIGN CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATE 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 exchange rate 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 currency 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 United States (“U.S.”) dollar, and are adversely affected by a strengthening of the U.S. dollar, relative to foreign currencies.

We have a foreign currency exchange exposure management program designed to identify material foreign currency exposures, manage these exposures, and reduce the potential effects of currency fluctuations on our 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 10—Derivative Instruments” to the consolidated financial statements included in this Form 10-K.

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We use foreign currency exchange forward contracts to protect our forecasted U.S. dollar-equivalent earnings and our investment in a foreign subsidiary from adverse changes in foreign currency exchange rates. These hedging contracts reduce, but do not entirely eliminate, the impact of adverse foreign currency exchange rate movements. We designate these contracts as cash flow and net investment hedges for accounting purposes. The derivative’s gain or loss is initially reported as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income (“AOCI”). Cash flow hedges are subsequently reclassified into the financial statement line item in which the hedged item is recorded in the same period the forecasted transaction affects earnings. The accumulated gains and losses associated with the net investment hedge will remain in AOCI until the foreign subsidiary is sold or substantially liquidated, at which point they will be reclassified into earnings.

We considered the historical trends in foreign 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, 2021 and 2020, the amount recorded in AOCI related to our foreign currency exchange forward contracts, before taxes, would have been approximately $1.0 billion and $1.1 billion lower, respectively. If the U.S. dollar strengthened by 20% at December 31, 2021 and 2020, the amount recorded in AOCI related to our foreign currency exchange forward contracts, before taxes, would have been approximately $1.0 billion and $1.1 billion higher, respectively.

We have an additional foreign currency exchange management program in which 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 exchange 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 $386 million and $353 million at December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, without considering the offsetting effect of foreign currency exchange contracts. Foreign currency exchange contracts in place as of December 31, 2021 would have positively impacted income before income taxes by approximately $400 million, resulting in a net positive impact of approximately $14 million. Foreign currency exchange contracts in place as of December 31, 2020 would have positively impacted income before income taxes by approximately $369 million, resulting in a net positive impact of approximately $16 million. These reasonably possible adverse changes in 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 INVESTMENT RISK

Our strategic investments are subject to a variety of market-related risks that could substantially reduce or increase the carrying value of the portfolio. As of both December 31, 2021 and 2020, our strategic investments totaled $3.2 billion which represented approximately 20% and 17% of our total cash, cash equivalents, and short-term and long-term investment portfolio at each of those respective dates. Our strategic investments include marketable equity securities, which are publicly traded, and non-marketable equity securities, which are primarily investments in privately held companies. We are required to record all adjustments to the value of these strategic investments through our consolidated statements of income. As such, we anticipate volatility to our net income in future periods due to changes in fair value related to our investments in marketable equity securities and changes in observable prices related to our non-marketable equity securities accounted for under the Measurement Alternative. These changes could be material based on market conditions. A hypothetical adverse change of 10% in the carrying value of our strategic investments, which could be experienced in the near term, would have resulted in a decrease of approximately $321 million to the carrying value of the portfolio as of December 31, 2021. We review our non-marketable equity investments accounted for under the Measurement Alternative for impairment when events and circumstances indicate a decline in fair value of such assets below carrying value. Our analysis includes a review of recent operating results and trends, recent purchases and sales of securities, and other publicly available data.

The audited consolidated financial statements covering the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019 and accompanying notes listed in Part IV, Item 15(a)(1) of this Form 10‑K are included in this report.

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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, 2021, 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, 2021.

In October 2021, we completed our acquisition of Paidy, Inc. (“Paidy”). Based upon Securities and Exchange Commission staff guidance, companies are permitted to exclude acquisitions from their assessment of internal control over financial reporting for the first year of acquisition. We have excluded Paidy from our assessment of internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021. Paidy is a wholly-owned subsidiary whose total revenue and assets, excluding goodwill and intangibles, represented less than 1% of our total consolidated revenue and consolidated assets for the year ended and as of December 31, 2021.

The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021 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 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.

None.

None.

PART III

Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after December 31, 2021.

Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after December 31, 2021.

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Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after December 31, 2021.

Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after December 31, 2021.

Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after December 31, 2021.

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PART IV

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

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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 (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the related consolidated statements of income, of comprehensive income, of stockholders’ equity and of cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2021, including the related notes and schedule of valuation and qualifying accounts for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2021 listed in the index 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, 2021, 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, 2021 and 2020, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2021 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, 2021, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the COSO.

Changes in Accounting Principles

As discussed in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company changed the manner in which it accounts for credit losses on financial instruments in 2020 and the manner in which it accounts for leases in 2019.

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.

As described in Management’s report on internal control over financial reporting, management has excluded Paidy, Inc. from its assessment of internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021 because it was acquired by the Company in a purchase business combination during 2021. We have also excluded Paidy, Inc. from our audit of internal control over financial reporting. Paidy, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary whose total assets and total revenues excluded from management’s assessment and our audit of internal control over financial reporting represent less than 1% of the related consolidated financial statement amounts as of and for the year ended December 31, 2021.

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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 fi

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None.

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SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, on February 3, 2022.

POWER OF ATTORNEY

KNOW ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints Daniel H. Schulman, John D. Rainey, Bimal Patel, Brian Y. Yamasaki and Jeffrey W. Karbowski, and each or any one of them, each with the power of substitution, his or her attorney-in-fact, to sign any amendments to this report, with exhibits thereto and other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, hereby ratifying and confirming all that each of said attorneys-in-fact, or his substitute or substitutes, may do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the Registrant and in the capacities indicated on February 3, 2022.

Additional Directors