Overview

• FICO plans to launch a new scoring model later this year that factors buy now, pay later loans into consumers’ official credit ratings.
• Affirm has started sharing its BNPL loan data with major credit bureaus in preparation for the model’s rollout.
• Klarna and Afterpay are withholding most loan information until they secure assurances that reporting will not lower customers’ FICO scores.
• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that 63 percent of BNPL users held multiple loans at once and that lenders approved subprime applicants 78 percent of the time.
• BNPL transactions are projected to reach $108 billion in 2025 while providers report historically low delinquency rates, with Klarna’s falling to 0.88 percent in Q2.