Report: The costs of using Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) products

The paper starts by revisiting existing literature on the financial lives of LIHs that shows that they manage their finances in a rather sophisticated manner. This can be traced to the radical uncertainty they face, which includes a “triple whammy” of income problems and expenditure shocks that are frequent and unique to their circumstances.

In an increasingly digitized world, Digital Financial Services (DFS) have emerged as a key tool for transacting, borrowing, saving, and investing. Policymakers and Financial Service Providers (FSPs) are keen to leverage DFS to advance financial inclusion, particularly for women from Low-Income Households (LIHs).

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) products have become one of the popular modes for customers to finance their retail purchases. BNPL products are being postured as challengers to credit cards that can make credit more accessible to customers at little to no cost.

This post summarises how BNPL lending functions and highlights customer protection concerns that can put at risk the promise of better credit access.

he increasingly-pervasive use of personal data in the provision of financial services can enable providers to offer suitable financial products, at a scale. Internationally, suitability or appropriateness in finance is conceptualised as “the degree to which the product or service offered by the intermediary matches the retail client’s financial situation, investment objectives, level of risk tolerance, financial need, knowledge and experience”

Primer on Suitability for Consumer Data Use and Product Design – 4th Dvara Research Conference