The Promise and Risk of Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) for Micro and Small Enterprises
Webinar
BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) refers to a type of payment product that allows consumers to pay for goods at a later date or in installments over a short period of time, while receiving them immediately as if they have been paid for upfront. BNPL products can be used online and in-store. These products have grown in popularity in recent years, particularly during the pandemic, due to lockdown measures and digitization efforts.
While there have been long established forms of BNPL for many years, technological advancements are allowing fintechs, e-commerce sites, online retailers, and other providers to deliver cutting-edge digital services to their customers. Although BNPL provides a more attractive alternative credit product to low-income borrowers, it also carries significant risks that need to be managed, particularly in the context of the rapid growth of the BNPL market in recent times.
In this webinar, BNPL providers, payment experts, and policy makers will explore the different models that exist in their contexts, their benefits to MSEs, as well as the challenges and opportunities to scale these offerings in a sustainable manner. The session will also explore consumer protection challenges that are becoming more relevant as the BNPL market grows.
Download the presentation.
Related resources: AFM warns: Using ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL) is easy but it has risks too
Speakers
Feyisayo Gbadebo-Smith
Feyisayo is the founder and the CEO of Altara, an African digital credit platform, with a focus on driving productivity for the base of the economic pyramid. In his role, he is responsible for the strategic direction of the company. Prior to this, he spent several years in Latin America at Coppel SA. de. CV. where he served as a strategic and digital growth executive. In prior roles, Feyisayo was a special situations investor at Marathon Asset Management, a $10 Bn hedge fund in New York City, where he analyzed and invested in emerging markets companies. Feyisayo holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, an MSt from Cambridge University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Fulbright Fellow.
Mia Junuzović
Mia Junuzović works as a supervisor at the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), which supervises the conduct the financial market sector in the Netherlands. She is part of the team that is responsible for the supervision of the consumer credit market within the AFM and that has published a study about the Dutch Buy Now, Pay Later market in November 2022. Before joining the AFM, Mia worked at the Faculty of Law of the University of Amsterdam as a lecturer and researcher, specializing in consumer (credit) law. She is currently finalizing her PhD, which analyses the concept of transparency of pre-(contractual) information in EU consumer law.
Srikara Prasad
Srikara Prasad is a Research Associate with the Future of Finance Initiative. He completed his under-graduation in the Law and Arts with honours (B.A.LL.B) course from Symbiosis Law School, Pune. His work in the past three years has focussed on helping create safer, more accessible and more trustworthy digital financial services in India.
Tomas Ignacio Piuzzi
Tomás Piuzzi is an experienced industrial engineer who helps small business across Latin America with lending solutions at Mercado Libre. Driven by his passion, he has developed the SMB lending unit from scratch to a 1.5BUSD origination per year and expanded it to 6 countries. He holds an MBA and MFIN from recognized IAE and Di Tella. In his leisure time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter and playing golf.