Affirm is expanding its pay-later offering through a new agreement with JPMorgan Payments.
The mentioned partnership was announced on Tuesday, March 25th. In this case, Affirm’s solutions will become available to merchants on the JPMorgan Payments network in the United States, letting them Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) plans at checkout.
The implementation of the specified partnership begins at a time when the adoption of Affirm’s services is becoming an increasingly intensive process. The number of active customers of the mentioned company has reached a record 21 million. This indicator increased by 23% year-on-year.
Michael Lozanoff, global head of merchant services at JPMorgan Payments, stated that demand for diverse payment options, flexibility, and seamless transactions from both merchants and their customers is currently at an all-time high. He also separately noted that by incorporating Affirm as a payment method into the Commerce Platform, JPMorgan empowers businesses to deliver the services they need and the experiences that clients increasingly expect as part of their retail journey.
The specified partnership was announced almost a week after Affirm announced that it would begin providing information on all its payment plans to Experian on April 1. Libor Michalek, Affirm president, said last week that having all loans reflected in a consumer’s financial profile will help protect and empower borrowers. According to him, the BNPL industry needs to evolve from simply providing flexible payment options to helping consumers build their credit history and better manage their finances. He stated that Affirm is taking this step together with Experian.
Affirm noted that enhanced credit reporting will help consumers build their credit stories while letting them and lenders make more informed decisions.
The mentioned actions of the specified company are part of a scalable practice involving BNPL loans in credit and underwriting decisions.
Last month, FICO said it would work to add BNPL data to its credit scoring analysis. This company and Affirm conducted a joint study, the results of which testified that 85% of consumers who opened a new BNPL account faced a consistent impact of appropriate actions on their FICO scores. This research also demonstrated that the effects on FICO Score predictivity ranged from a moderate improvement to no negative effect.
An additional impact of having BNPL included in credit scoring may be that consumers will be averse to stacking short-term loans, seeking to keep their debt loans manageable and boosting their credit scores at the same time.
As we have reported earlier, Affirm Expands Cooperation With Liberty Mutual Investments.
