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have higher credit card balances and often miss credit Ingenico, Splitit team for in-store BNPL
card payments. They also are more likely to have bor-
rowed using products like payday loans and tend to have Most of the BNPL activity, to date, has been in the ecom-
low credit scores. merce sphere. Providers have struggled to bring the ser-
vice to the physical POS because of the friction involved—
"Since Buy Now, Pay Later is like other forms of credit, we a multi-step process of registering and applying for fund-
are working to ensure that borrowers have similar protec- ing, or logging into a third-party service or app.
tions and that companies play by similar rules," Chopra
said in releasing the report. The payments technology firm Ingenico said it has fig-
ured out a way to eliminate these barriers. It disclosed
But here is the curious thing: the CFPB doesn't seem to last month that it is working with BNPL provider Splitit
think BNPL is necessarily to blame for the over-indebted- to bring one-touch BNPL capabilities to the physical POS.
ness of consumers who use the product. Unlike legacy BNPL services that originate new loans, the
two companies have figured out a way to leverage existing
"The report finds that many of these differences [in indebt- credit card balances to offer zero percent interest install-
edness] pre-date Buy Now, Pay Later use and highlights ments.
the need for further research into whether the products
have any causal impact on consumer indebtedness," CFPB "Splitit's Installments-as-a-Service platform is a new way
said in a press release. to drive BNPL through a white-label, merchant-branded
experience embedded within a brand's existing checkout
The Federal Trade Commission made clear its position on flow," the companies said in a statement.
BNPL and the merchants that offer it, namely that they
had better toe the line with regards to the FTC Act, the Patti Murphy is senior editor at the Green Sheet and self-described pay-
legislation that created the FTC. It empowers the agency ments maven of the fourth estate. She also co-hosts the Merchant Sales
to prevent unfair competition and deceptive acts and Podcast.
practices involving commerce, and to take corrective steps
against companies that don't play fair.