“Mastercard Installments enables consumers to digitally access BNPL offers, either pre-approved through their lender’s mobile banking app or through instant approval during checkout. Pre-approved installments can be used directly on a merchant’s website, and can be stored in digital wallets including Click-to-Pay, to then be used online or in-store wherever Mastercard is accepted. Instant approvals during checkout will be available through Click-to-Pay shortly after launch. Consumers will have full transparency on lender practices up-front during the approval process, and unlike most current BNPL offerings, consumers will continue to benefit from zero liability fraud protection, the ability to challenge unrecognized charges, and the peace of mind that comes with Mastercard’s acceptance footprint.”

“The credit activity of POS financing applicants was a bit of a surprise, Pagel says. “We were surprised to see how credit-active these consumers are,” she says. “More POS financing applicants are building bank and retail card balances than the general credit population versus using POS financing instead of using their cards.” Continuing, “These new forms of financing are growing the credit pie—opening up more opportunities for both consumers and lenders.””

“Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM), the payment network that empowers consumers and helps merchants drive growth, today announced the launch of Adaptive Checkout™. This latest product enables Affirm merchants to seamlessly offer customers even more choice and flexibility at checkout while increasing sales. Leveraging Affirm’s proprietary technology, Adaptive Checkout builds upon Affirm’s existing product suite and dynamically provides optimized biweekly and monthly payment options for each transaction side-by-side in a single integrated checkout solution. Merchants using Adaptive Checkout in early access have seen, on average, a 26% increase in cart conversion, a 22% lift in approvals, and a 20% increase in sales, compared to offering monthly payments through Affirm alone.”

“Executives from American Express Co., Capital One Financial Corp., Synchrony Financial and other firms mentioned buy-now, pay-later products more than five dozen times during investor presentations last week, according to the Morgan Stanley report. The products allows consumers to split their purchases into scheduled payments.”

“Figure Pay is currently available in 26 states, and is expanding nationwide. It is built on the Provenance Blockchain payments infrastructure, which allows for faster payments and cuts down on merchant costs. Figure Pay offers its users a fee-free deposit account, seamless money transfer to friends and family, an extensive rewards program and free access to a network of 55,000 ATMs. Most notably, it has native Buy Now, Pay Later functionality built in, allowing a consumer to decide at the point of sale whether they want to finance any purchase. Figure Pay also has a commitment to financial inclusion and allowing underbanked users to access financing and build credit history.”

“Credit card heavyweights, which long showed little angst about buy now/pay later competitors, are starting to acknowledge the need to match the offers from those upstart firms. In recent days, a few major card issuers have either announced new BNPL offerings or signaled that they are closer to doing so. Their products are poised to rival short-term installment loans from fintechs like Affirm, Afterpay and Klarna, which market to millennials and Gen Z consumers, and tout their products as easier-to-understand alternatives to credit cards.”

“Alexis Luedtke got her first “buy now, pay later” plan in 2019 after she was rejected for a credit card. She has used at least five more since to buy face cream, T-shirts and birthday gifts. Installment plans are back in style. PayPal Holdings Inc. last week said it was buying Japanese installment payment startup Paidy Inc., following Square Inc.’s $29 billion deal for Afterpay Ltd. Macy’s Inc. and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. have added the option at checkout over the past year. Even Amazon.com Inc. is doing it .”

“Curve, the fast-growing financial super app, is very proud to announce Curve Flex, a unique rival to Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). After receiving FCA approval on September 1st, Curve has quietly launched Curve Flex to simplify and unify credit. It offers customers the power to pay later for almost any purchase made at any merchant, from any card, up to a year ago. Curve Flex builds on Curve’s patented and trademarked Go Back in Time technology to let customers convert almost any purchase made on any card linked to the Curve platform in the past 12-months into an instalment plan.”

“Credit card issuer Capital One Financial Corp (COF.N) will test a “buy now, pay later” product this year as competition for consumer loans builds from financial technology firms providing merchants with easy ways to offer cheap financing for purchases. “We will be testing a beta version of our own ‘buy now, pay later’ product,” Capital One Chief Executive Richard Fairbank said at a Barclays investor conference on Monday. Fairbank said Capital One’s test will include point-of-sale loans for customers at a “select set of merchants” with which it already has relationships.”

“Monzo and Revolut, two of Britain’s best-known financial technology firms, are planning to enter the booming “buy now, pay later” industry. Buy now, pay later, or BNPL, plans are an increasingly popular method of payment that lets users spread the cost of their purchases over a series of interest-free instalments. The trend was pioneered by the likes of Swedish fintech Klarna and Australian firm Afterpay .”

“Uplift , the leading enterprise Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) solution serving the world’s top travel brands, and KAYAK, the world’s leading travel search engine, have deepened their partnership to provide travelers with greater payment flexibility when booking travel on KAYAK. Expanding on Uplift’s existing payment options, starting this fall, KAYAK users will have the added benefit of paying in interest-free monthly installments on select flights through the end of the year.”

“Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ), the global modern card issuing platform, today announced a continued partnership with Zip Co. in Australia, completing the first year of powering the global Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) company which provides fast and seamless solutions that simplify how people pay, everywhere.”

“The option to buy now and pay later has soared in popularity, accelerating last year as consumers bought almost everything online at the start of the pandemic. But the little buttons under those Lululemon leggings or that new TV that suggest spreading your purchase over six weeks or more — often at no cost — are expected to change spending habits in lasting ways.”

“Fintech firm Revolut is preparing to launch a ‘buy now, pay later’ feature, becoming a rival of ClearPay and Klarna.  The company will allow users to spread the cost of in-store and online purchases over a period of time, chief executive Nikolay Storonsky has said. “Simply a button which you switch on and then your card becomes a buy now pay later product,” the fintech boss told the Evening Standard.”

“Affirm is making a push to personalize its tech for marketplaces and merchants looking to launch buy now, pay later offerings of their own. The BNPL player is hiring for a team called ‘Powered by Affirm’ that offers APIs for customers looking to launch their own payment feature, according a job posting viewed by Insider.”

“By linking its installment lending service to Amazon, Affirm is gaining access to not only one of the largest e-commerce brands on the planet, but also a network of many smaller merchants that connect to Amazon’s payment and credit options. Amazon is testing Affirm’s buy now/pay later product with a limited number of consumers, with wider deployment expected down the road. It’s a major client win for Affirm, whose roster of about 12,000 merchants also includes major firms Walmart , Shopify and Peloton.”

“Buy now, pay later outfit Laybuy is launching an app that lets UK shoppers pay in instalments at some of the world’s biggest brands, including Amazon, eBay, Asos and Nike. Brits can download the app and use it to pay in six instalments, interest-free at over 5000 online stores.Users search within the built-in shop directory and select the retailer they want to shop at. The firm’s website loads up as normal within the Laybuy app. When they go to pay, details will be automatically completed, allowing them to pay for their purchases in instalments.”

“When you’re buying a pricey sofa or a kitchen cabinet set from Ikea, you can pay for it in installments. Now, you can also buy smaller items—like rugs and lamps—and pay for them later.    Today Ikea’s parent company, Ingka Group, announces it is investing more than $20 million in a company called Jifiti, which provides “buy now, pay later,” among other financial services. According to a statement by Ingka, the new deal with Jifiti provides customers the option of buying Ikea products and paying them off over time.”

“Credit unions haven’t typically been part of the buy now/pay later battle being waged among banks and fintechs, but Tom Church-Adams, senior vice president for payment products at CO-OP Financial Services, contends there’s room for them to join the fray. “Buy now/pay later is becoming much more popular in the general banking market. Consumers are out there making large purchases and soon this will be a standard feature for shopping,” said Church-Adams. CO-OP, a credit union service organization in Rancho Cucamonga, California, develops technology and payment rails for a network of 3,500 credit unions with 30 million members, or customers.”

“Klarna , the leading global retail bank, payments, and shopping service, and Global-e (NASDAQ: GLBE), the world’s leading cross-border e-commerce platform, today announced an expanded partnership to offer flexible payment options to consumers across the US, UK, France, Spain, Italy, and Australia. Klarna’s payment solutions will now be available to all merchants selling internationally via Global-e’s cross-border e-commerce platform. Global-e’s international merchants can seamlessly offer Klarna to further enhance their offering of a localized online shopping experience.”

“Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM), the payment network that empowers consumers and helps merchants drive growth, today announced that its flexible payment solution will soon be available to Amazon.com customers at checkout. Amazon and Affirm are testing with select customers now, and in the coming months, Amazon plans to make Affirm more broadly available to its customers. As a result of Amazon and Affirm’s partnership, select Amazon customers now have the option to split the total cost of purchases of $50 or more into simple monthly payments by using Affirm.”