Bling Stickers at PayPal's HQ

Bling Nation Ltd. has begun issuing its mobile payment stickers to employees of PayPal Inc. at PayPal's headquarters in San Jose.

The companies have been working together to expand Bling Nation's reach.

Bling Nation often works with a community bank to issue to the bank's customers its contactless payment stickers, which are typically placed on mobile phones. In June, Bling Nation disclosed that it is also working with PayPal to arrange for its payment stickers to have access to funds from PayPal accounts.

The 2,000 employees at PayPal's headquarters have the capability to use the stickers to make purchases at participating merchants in nearby Palo Alto, Calif., where Bling Nation is based. Most users have put the contactless payments stickers on their mobile phones.

Bling Nation is known for a hyperlocal approach — in its typical deployment, both the consumers who make Bling payments and the merchants who receive the payments are customers of a community bank with which Bling Nation has a partnership. Payments are debited from the consumers' bank accounts.

This approach makes it hard for Bling Nation to work with larger companies, but it said in June that it hopes working with eBay Inc.'s PayPal unit will help it establish relationships with the larger merchants that PayPal already counts as clients.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Bank technology
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER