PayPal Inc. of San Jose says that it will use its new European bank license primarily for marketing purposes, and that it has no plans to offer traditional banking products or services.
PayPal announced Tuesday that it had received the license, issued by Luxembourg's Commission for Supervision of the Financial Sector. It will take effect July 2.
Amanda Pires, a spokeswoman for the eBay Inc. unit, said it needed the license to step up its marketing efforts.
"We will not change the way that you use PayPal, and we will not be offering traditional banking products," she said. "We need this new regulatory status so we can go out and make direct contacts with retailers across Europe."
As part of the change, PayPal will move its European headquarters to Luxembourg from Dublin.
It currently operates in Europe under an electronic money license issued by the United Kingdom's Financial Services Authority. Ms. Pires said the U.K. license limited PayPal's marketing capabilities.
"There's just certain things that we could not do," she said. "Direct marketing to merchants, sales calls, developing a significant sales force — things like that were limited under the old regulatory structure."
PayPal is already available as a payment option on more than 100,000 Web sites in Europe. Since 2004 it has been putting up localized versions of its site in foreign countries, including in Europe.
Gwenn Bezard, a research director at Aite Group LLC of Boston, said that even though PayPal may have no interest in offering new financial products or services to consumers, it could roll out new offerings quickly for merchants.
Though PayPal itself is not a merchant acquirer, it currently offers merchants a way to accept card payments, Mr. Bezard said. "PayPal is focusing increasingly on merchant acquiring, and with a banking license, they can become a full-blown merchant acquirer."
