The BNPL provider bought South Africa-based Payflex to establish a presence in the region, which remains largely untapped and where point-of-sale financing solutions have strong growth potential.

Bread Financial rebranded in March, taking up the name of the buy now, pay later (BNPL) startup it acquired in 2020 for $450 million. The name change emphasizes the brand’s ties to BNPL, which is attracting consumers despite regulatory scrutiny: The number of US BNPL users is expected to grow 31.4% year over year in 2022 and hit 59.3 million, per Insider Intelligence forecasts.

With Pay Later, SMBs can apply for short-term loans and pay them in equal installments—helping Veem carve out a piece of the BNPL market through B2B payments.

And it delved into buy now, pay later (BNPL) through partnerships with Fiserv and Mastercard, which could boost its digital volume and spending. It’s also added to its healthcare portfolio through a partnership with Walgreens that includes a prepaid debit card, store card, and co-branded card that debuted last year.

Related content: Check out the section titled “How BNPL Solutions Are Threatening Credit Card Stakeholders” in “The Buy Now, Pay Later Report” to learn more about competition between card issuers and BNPL providers.

Although BNPL is flourishing, intensifying competition might push providers into new global markets and sectors outside of traditional retail to sustain their growth.

The financial services suite will help Apple build a buy now, pay later (BNPL) program that would enable short-term, four-installment loans. It could also inform other tools, like a long-term loan program. Apple’s entry into the BNPL space would be a threat to existing providers because it already has a strong user base that would let it grab a sizable portion of the market.

Amazon has also bolstered the payment options available on its website by adding Venmo and buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Affirm. Opening its walled garden to more third-party partnerships could help Amazon increase sales.

Visa and Mastercard will have to contend with the rise of alternative payment methods like buy now, pay later (BNPL) and A2A payments. Growing dissatisfaction over card fees could help these alternatives gain more market share.

The bigger picture: The Victoria’s Secret card rollout comes on the heels of Bread’s rebrand from Alliance Data, assuming the identity of the buy now, pay later (BNPL) startup it acquired in 2020. Bread plans to become a tech-forward company and will shift its strategic focus to include more direct-to-consumer products.

Similarly, PayPal’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) franchise grew volumes 256%, with more than 18 million consumer accounts using the product since launch. Looking ahead: Here are areas PayPal will focus on going forward. User engagement: PayPal wants to add higher-value accounts, which the company believes is more cost-effective than trying to retain low-engaged users.

And adding offerings like buy now, pay later (BNPL) for Delta cardholders and other purchases can help ensure customers use their Amex cards for more purchases rather than attriting to alternative payment methods.

On today's episode, we discuss Amazon's Q2 performance of its retail business, some takeaways from its Prime offering, and where it stands on its physical stores strategy. We then talk about capitalizing on the subscription box trend, how buy-now-pay-later users are different from credit card users, and if malls really are within striking distance of 2019 traffic levels. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer director of forecasting at Insider Intelligence Cindy Liu.

The news: Klarna launched a browser extension that enables buy now, pay later (BNPL) for online shoppers even if Klarna isn’t partnered with the merchant, per a press release. The tool is compatible with Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and soon Firefox and Safari.

Article: Big-name partnerships give Mastercard a leg up in the BNPL arms race.

BNPL. Roughly 60% of consumers in Australia have used a BNPL solution, according to a Marqeta report. But BNPL’s growing popularity has led to some concerns: In March, the government drafted a set of guidelines for BNPL providers to protect consumers against emerging financial risks.

The BNPL provider is pursuing aggressive growth with new partnerships with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Yoox Net-a-Porter, but credit card competition looms as legacy players try to reclaim customers.

Last quarter, he said the firm was experimenting with integrations like a search function that lets Cash App users discover BNPL offers and Afterpay merchants. The firm could also embed more social elements into Cash App, like what Venmo offers with its payment feed. Global expansion.

Enable BNPL and One-Click Checkout. Retailers should look to expand BNPL integration—both online and in-store. US consumers’ ramped up usage of BNPL shows no signs of abating—we forecast that it will jump from 45.1 million to 59.3 million in 2022—and rising inflation will enhance the need to help dollars stretch further.

Square’s unexpected purchase is set to shake up the buy now, pay later (BNPL) space while also opening up cross-selling opportunities for the payments giant, helping it to maintain its edge over top rival PayPal.

A few months later, PayPal acquired local buy now, pay later (BNPL) firm Paidy for an estimated $2.7 billion to gain a stronger foothold in the market. And Google paid $187.3 million for Japan-based cashless payments startup pring in September, which we called out as an opportunity to expand Google Pay acceptance. Related content: Interested in learning more about payment processors like Worldline?

One proxy is buy now, pay later (BNPL) demand: 70.2% of current BNPL users surveyed by PYMNTS in November 2021 said they would be “more interested” in using bank-backed BNPL products versus nonbank offerings.

With these retailers, Neo Financial offers products like co-branded cards and buy now, pay later options. Trendspotting: Including Neo Financial, Canadian neobanks have raised over $1 billion CAD over the past year and are bringing serious competition to the five Canadian incumbent banks.

The payments firm’s total payment volume hit a whopping $311 billion—and it will likely sustain that momentum as it dives deeper into BNPL and cryptocurrencies and builds out Venmo and its in-store payments business.