Buy now, pay later (BNPL) – consumer financing at the point of sale (POS) – is fueled by an easy, convenient, and digitally-enabled payment and credit value proposition proliferated by fintechs.
But banks, traditional lenders, and payment processing companies are increasingly moving into the space to support growing market demands and compete with fintechs who have already diverted $8-10billion in revenue away from banks.
In light of this growth, Yaacov Martin, CEO and co-founder of Jifiti discusses the growing calls for regulation in the BNPL industry, and how consolidation provides the answer.
While BNPL is appealing for retailer growth, it has also attracted more attention from payment companies and banks, leading to a series of acquisitions in recent months; Square spent $29billion to buy Afterpay, PayPal is paying $2.7billion for Japanese upstart Paidy, and Goldman Sachs bought GreenSky for $2.2billion.
These latest acquisitions and consolidations are bold signals that the BNPL market is booming – and more growth is on the horizon. But as the number of brands and users in the BNPL arena continues to grow, the largely unregulated nature of the BNPL explosion has garnered the attention of regulators.
Financial regulators are sitting up and taking notice, not because of the consolidation itself but because these collaborations are an indication that the industry is one to be taken seriously and is here to stay.
Regulation Has Jumped to Top of Mind
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