PayPal to Address AML Issues

PayPal Inc. has agreed to work with Australia's financial crimes regulator after the agency found it was not compliant with the country's reporting standards for preventing money laundering.

The payments unit of eBay Inc. is planning to hire an independent party to help it meet the standards, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre and PayPal said Sunday.

PayPal has spent $13 million over the past two years to comply with Australia's regulatory standards, the company said.

Australia is PayPal's fifth-biggest market. It said it was not certain how much it would cost to attain compliance with the Australian requirements. Australia made a similar assessment of Barclays PLC in July.

Under Australian law, banks are required to submit suspicious transactions to the country's counterterrorism financing agency. The lenders must also have processes in place to prevent money laundering.

PayPal is available in 190 countries and supports payments in 24 currencies. It generates about 31% of eBay's revenue; the online auction company has said the unit's sales are expected to double to $5 billion by 2011 and eventually become its biggest business.

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