Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is currently one of the hottest sectors of Fintech. BNPL is a service that can be provided at the point of sale for a transaction and thus supplant traditional credit cards in regards to larger transactions. As credit cards tend to charge pretty silly fees (that generate a lot of money for the issuers), BNPLs have leveraged an opportunity to provide seamless credit at a more competitive price to consumers while capturing loads of data.
Earlier this week, Jack Dorsey’s Square (NYSE:SQ) announced it had purchased Australian BNPL Afterpay for $29 billion. The news of the significant acquisition juiced the entire BNPL market.
Soon after Square’s announcement, it was widely reported that Apple was partnering up with PayBright – a BNPL operating in Canada.
PayBright is part of Max Levchin’s Affirm, (NASDAQ:AFRM), another point of sale credit provider. Shares in Affirm jumped on the news
According to reports, Apple is briefing staff in Canada that consumers will soon have the option to pay overtime to purchase Apple products – many of which cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. By slicing a large purchase into smaller re-occurring ones, Apple should be able to boost its sales further as their products will become more accessible to a wider audience.
As was previously reported, Apple is rumored to be in discussions with Goldman Sachs to offer a BNPL service in the US. Goldman is the company that manages the back end of the successful Apple Card.
Of course, all of this makes sense in a digital finance world where Fintech everywhere is quickly becoming reality.