Financial/Banking

San Jose, Calif. – PayPal may have to fork over $25 million in a proposed settlement for allegedly deceiving consumers with the PayPal Credit service, formerly known as BillMeLater. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants PayPal to refund $15 million to consumers and pay an additional $10 million in fines for signing up consumers who did not want to participate, not honoring promotional offers, unfairly leading PayPal customers to use PayPal Credit, and charging consumers fees during periods of time disputes were improperly handled.

San Francisco - Retailers in the U.S. including Dunkin’ Donuts, Fandango, Sundance Catalog and Williams-Sonoma will now offer Visa Checkout, the online checkout service from Visa Inc. In addition, Pizza Hut, Ticketek and Bonds will offer Visa Checkout in Australia; and Indigo, Roots, Running Room and Simons will offer the service in Canada.

Houston – Stage Stores Inc. beat Wall Street expectations with a loss but missed with decidedly revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2015. The retailer reported net loss of $8.64 million, an improvement from a net loss of $18.79 million the same quarter a year earlier.

Philadelphia – Urban Outfitters Inc. missed Wall Street expectations for net income, sales and same-store sales during the first quarter of fiscal 2015. Net income fell 12% to $32.78 millio,n from $37.48 million the same quarter a year earlier.

Lower margins and higher delivery and fulfillment expense helped drive down net income. Sales reached a record high of $739 million, up 8% from $686.31 million, but still fell short of Wall Street expectations. Same-store sales rose 4%.

New York - BGC Partners Inc., a global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets, has entered into an agreement to acquire Excess Space Retail Services Inc. Excess Space is a premier provider of real estate disposition, lease restructuring and lease renewal services, as well as related valuations for retailers nationwide and currently advises on 35.6 million-sq.-ft. of retail space in North America.

Arlington, Va. – The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) is speaking out on retail data security. Brian Dodge, executive VP, communications & strategic initiatives, RILA, testified at the House Financial Services Committee hearing, “Protecting Consumers: Financial Data Security in the Age of Computer Hackers,” Thursday, May 14.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) spoke out in Washington, D.C., this week on the steps retailers are taking to protect against data breaches.

San Jose, Calif. – In one more sign the long-discussed eBay-PayPal split is really on its way, PayPal has announced it will trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol “PYPL” once it is spun off from parent company eBay. PayPal was initially founded as an independent company in 1998 and joined eBay in 2002.

PayPal intends to become a platform for a world in which all commerce is performed digitally.