Skrill

Skrill (formerly Moneybookers) is an e-commerce business that allows payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet, with a focus on low-cost international money transfers.[3]

For the fiction species, see Taelon § Skrills, living high energy weapons.

Skrill Limited

Type	Private
Industry	Online payments
Founded	27 July 2001 (2001-07-27)
Headquarters	25 Canada Square, London, United Kingdom
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Lorenzo Pellegrino (CEO)
Products	Payment gateway Digital wallet Prepaid card PSP
Revenue	$331 million (2014)[1]
Number of employees	500+ (2018)[2]
Parent	Paysafe Group
Website	skrill.com

It is owned and operated by Skrill Limited, a UK-based company registered as a Money Service Business with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and licensed to operate within the European Economic Area.[4][5]

Since 2015, Skrill belongs to the Paysafe Group,[6][7] along with former competitor Neteller and prepaid payment method paysafecard.

History

On 27 July 2001, Moneybookers Limited was incorporated in the United Kingdom.[8]

In March 2007, Moneybookers was bought by Investcorp for €105 million[9] and, as of 9 March 2009, it was put up for sale by its owners for an estimated £365 million.[10]

In February 2010, The Sunday Times ranked Moneybookers as the fastest growing private equity backed firm in the United Kingdom based on profits.[11]

In 2011, the company's customer base reached 25 million, including 120,000 merchant accounts,[12] its payment gateway being integrated by a number of global online brands, such as Facebook, Skype and eBay.[13][14]

In September 2011, Moneybookers announced that they would rebrand their service as Skrill.[15] The rebranding of the product was completed in 2013.[16]

In February 2013, Skrill completed the acquisition of Austrian-based prepaid payment method paysafecard.[17]

In August 2013, CVC Capital Partners acquired Skrill for €600 million.[18] As of 2014, Skrill has been approved by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) as the only sanctioned digital wallet for New Jersey internet gambling.[19]

In March 2015, Optimal Payments, the parent company of the Skrill's rival Neteller, announced its official proposal for acquisition of Skrill Group for €1.1 billion. The deal was finalized in the third quarter of 2015 according to the parties.[20]

In April 2015, Skrill Group announced that it had completed acquisition of Ukash, a UK-based competitor of paysafecard, which was merged during the same year.[21]

In June 2018, Skrill introduced crypto service that allows customers to buy cryptocurrencies using their balance in local fiat currency to hold an interest in them via Skrill wallet without being able to withdraw the bought cryptocurrencies to a native wallet or any other cryptocurrency exchange.[22]

Service

Skrill accounts can be created in one of 40 supported currencies; users can then add more currencies to their account.[23] Customers can purchase a Skrill-branded prepaid card, linked to the account in one of the four currencies: USD, EUR, PLN, and GBP.[24] High-turnover customers are offered premium membership called "Skrill VIP" that includes additional features, such as a security token, multi-currency accounts and the ability to earn loyalty points.[25]

WikiLeaks blockage

In August 2010, Skrill blocked the account operated by WikiLeaks as a donation collection account, citing the organisation's addition to Australian blacklists and American watchlists.[26]

References

1. "Proposed acquisition by Optimal Payments of Skrill to create a leading global player in online payment and digital wallets services" (PDF). Retrieved 26 March 2015.
2. "About Us". Paysafe. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
3. "Skrill Holdings Limited: Private Company Information". Retrieved 26 March 2015.
4. "Skrill - TotallyGaming.com". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
5. "All you need to know about virtual prepaid cards". Blog with TYPO3. Retrieved 2019-06-27.
6. "Board of Directors". Paysafe. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
7. "Skrill taps football legend to publicise its prepaid Mastercard Skrill prepaid". Cards International. Retrieved 2020-04-30.
8. "Company information for SKRILL LIMITED (04260907) incorporated 27-07-2001". Retrieved 26 May 2018.
9. "Investcorp Technology Partners Undertakes Buyout of Moneybookers Limited for EUR105 Million" (Press release). 28 March 2007. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
10. "Investcorp to sell Moneybookers". Telegraph.co.uk. 9 March 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
11. "Buyout Track 100" (PDF). The Sunday Times. 7 February 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
12. "Skrill's customer base has reached 25 mln in 2011". 19 March 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
13. Stafford, Philip (8 March 2009). "Moneybookers up for sale". Financial Times. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
14. "eBay, Moneybookers & Paymate – Amazon launch FPS". Tamebay. 6 February 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
15. "Skrill - The New Face of Moneybookers". Branding. 29 September 2011. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
16. "Our company - Skrill". Retrieved 26 May 2018.
17. Moss, Karen (11 February 2013). "Skrill acquires paysafecard.com". retail-systems.com. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
18. Williams, Christopher (19 August 2013). "CVC buys PayPal rival Skrill for £500m". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
19. Hannah Elisabeth (18 December 2014). "US Online Poker, New Jersey, and Skrill USA : What's in Store for 2015?". CardsChat. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
20. "Neteller Acquires Skrill". 25 March 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
21. "Skrill Group completes Ukash acquisition" (Press release). Finextra. 1 April 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
22. "Skrill Cryptocurrency Terms of Use".
23. "Online Casinos that Accept Skrill / Moneybookers". Retrieved 26 March 2015.
24. "Skrill MasterCard". Retrieved 26 March 2015.
25. "Skrill VIP". Retrieved 26 March 2015.
26. Leigh, David; Evans, Rob (14 October 2010). "WikiLeaks says funding has been blocked after government blacklisting". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 March 2015.

External links

• Official website