PayPal announced it has been granted a banking license for the European Union by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) in Luxembourg, effective July 2, 2007. Under this new charter, PayPal will be able to continue its European expansion by offering its services to more online merchants across Europe. In addition, PayPal will be moving its European headquarters to Luxembourg.

“Our goal is to give European consumers more places to shop securely and conveniently across the web by making PayPal available on virtually every retail website in Europe,” said Brent Bellm, vice president of PayPal Europe. “Establishing a new European headquarters in Luxembourg, and receiving this bank license, is a significant step in the next phase of PayPal’s European growth.”

PayPal has more than 35 million accounts, and is offered on more than 100,000 websites in Europe. In 2006, PayPal processed $8.4 billion of total payment volume in Europe.

According to Forrester Research, 23% of all European internet shoppers prefer paying with PayPal. These shoppers can currently find PayPal accepted on many different European retail sites including Harrods, DHL, Meetic, Pixmania, eBuyer, Tommy Hilfiger, Boots. It is also available on eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY).

PayPal has local language websites in 15 countries including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland and the UK. To encourage local and cross border e-commerce, PayPal also supports payments from 190 markets in 17 currencies including Euros, Pounds Sterling, Czech Koruna, Danish Krone, Hungarian Forint, Norwegian Krone, Polish Zloty, Swedish Krona, and Swiss Francs.