The online auction site eBay is planning to split off its payments system PayPal into a separate company. It expects to do that in the second half of 2015, BBC News reports.

EBay's chief executive John Donahoe said: "A thorough strategic review... shows that keeping eBay and PayPal together beyond 2015 clearly becomes less advantageous to each business strategically and competitively."

PayPal's revenues are growing at 19% a year, twice as quickly as eBay's. PayPal's annual revenue is $7.2bn, while eBay's is $9.9bn and is growing at 10% a year.

The move marks a reversal of strategy for the company.

Earlier this year the activist investor, Carl Icahn, began pressing for eBay to sell PayPal, a plan that was resisted by the eBay board. He stopped pushing after failing to gain enough support.

eBay bought PayPal in 2002 for $1.5bn, and the payments company is now the Silicon Valley firm's fastest-growing business, with 143 million active users at the end of 2013, up 16% from a year earlier.