Paymentech to offer PayPal among its payment services

Paymentech L.P. has expanded its payment processing services by integrating the PayPal online payment service into its proprietary payment processing platform, Paymentech said today.

"PayPal has more than 56 million accounts around the world, which translates to new buyers and incremental sales for Internet merchants," said Scott Cruickshank, Paymentech`s chief marketing officer. "Our goal is to offer merchants the broadest range of payment methods, and through this agreement, that`s exactly what we are doing." PayPal, a unit of eBay Inc., makes immediate payments to online merchants on behalf of consumers who have funded their PayPal account with checks or credit card payments.

Paymentech, which says it processes more than half of all U.S. e-commerce transactions, also provides payment processing services including electronic checks, gift cards and credit cards.