eBay Lures Abhinav Anand From Goldman Sachs / Apple Card To Head Its Payments Program

eBay has appointed Abhinav Anand as its Global Head of Payment Products and Risk, leading the company’s payments solutions program, still considered controversial by many long-time sellers.

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Anand brings with him a wealth of experience from his previous role at Goldman Sachs, where he co-managed the Apple relationship and held the position of Managing Director (MD) for various other partnerships, including Amazon, Walmart, and JetBlue.

Before joining Goldman Sachs in 2015, he served as the chief model risk officer at Discover Financial Services for about seven years.

Although Anand’s recent focus has been in the banking sector, his background is in software engineering and machine learning, managing and building predictive models during his tenure at West Asset Management and infoUSA Inc.

It appears that Anand’s departure from Goldman Sachs may not be an isolated event.

The Wall Street Journal reported a week ago that the bank is seeking to sell its partnership with Apple, potentially to American Express.

The Platform Services unit of Goldman Sachs, responsible for consumer-facing businesses such as the Apple Card, GreenSky, and a portion of the Marcus personal loan business, has incurred billions of losses since 2020.

Anand’s expertise in scaling consumer-facing products should be a valuable asset for eBay. While some may question the unconventional choice of eBay, the company remains committed to expanding its payments platform and introducing additional features for sellers.

As many long-time sellers continue to miss PayPal as their preferred service option due to its flexibility in using funds almost anywhere.

Although eBay’s managed payments system has led to some new features such as reducing unpaid items on best offers, sellers still seek more ways to spend their eBay funds outside the company’s ecosystem.

eBay Card in The Works?

Given his 15+ years of experience in the banking sector, Anand may be the catalyst to introduce an eBay-branded debit card, enabling sellers to utilize their account funds for other personal and business expenses.

This would take eBay’s payments solution one step closer to being a true replacement for PayPal. Currently, the company does offer an eBay credit card issued by Synchrony Bank.

Anand’s move to eBay was first reported by eFinancialCareers and has since been confirmed on his LinkedIn profile. As of now, eBay has not released an official statement regarding his appointment.