Thread by @ckwitt3

"In October, the payments made to the five point-of-sale lenders in our analysis were nearly four times what they were in January 2018"

At least 15% of each of the other companies’ borrowers also had loans with the industry giant, Affirm, in Q3'19

bit.ly/2N0Z91j

"BNPL sector harmed from reduced availability of funding, higher funding costs and reduced demand as unemployment spiked...face an even harder hit b/c of reliance on young consumers -~40% of Afterpay’s millennial customers are vulnerable to unemployment"

on.ft.com/2WLZ7js

To stay that POS lending is "having a moment" is a misnomer. Of course retailers want to curb plummeting sales volume by partnering with affirm, sezzle, afterpay, etc to boost conversions

Ultimately dont see how this is beneficial for any party invovled

bit.ly/2K4AcjX

Affirm seeing merchant signings up 40% from March 1-April 30 vs. Jan 1-Feb 29%

Retail POS lending market opportunity in AU / US / UK from APT

"Total US outstanding balances originated through POS installment lending solutions stood at $94B in 2018. Those balances are expected to exceed $110B in 2019 and to account for around 10% of all unsecured lending."

mck.co/2ZzHmFs

BNPL competitive landscape by loan type

Australian BNPL lender Zip is buying QuadPay for $270M

"The combined company would have ~3.5M customers and more than 26K merchants, with annual revenue of over A$250 million, Zip said, closing on Afterpay which claims ~5M customers"

reut.rs/3ctqval

"Afterpay’s most-recent financial results—covering 6 months thru Dec 2019—showed late fees, which are $8 in the US and capped at 25% of the transaction size, accounted for 15% of $152M in revenue, or 0.7% of $3.31B in goods / services bought on platform"

on.wsj.com/2OhIbMy

Good point by @bradsling in his latest newsletter on networks disintermediation threats to issuers

POS lending is a good example. $MA acquired Vyze last year, partnered with TSYS. $V launched API-based installment solution for issuers. No reason to think this won't continue

$ADS acquiring Bread for $450M to expand into installment lending and BNPL business. Somewhat of a hedge against declining PLCC purchase volumes.

Interested to see if $C, $COF, $SYF makes a similar move

prn.to/31W0NZD