HIRE PURCHASE – AUSTRALIA

Openpay not the last BNPL failure

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Original article by David Swan
The Australian – Page: 15 : 8-Feb-23

Splitit CEO Nandan Sheth warns that more ‘buy now, pay later’ providers are likely to collapse, after Openpay was placed in the hands of receivers from McGrathNicol. Sheth contends that Openpay’s business model was "fundamentally flawed", and he is not surprised about the company’s demise. He notes that many BNPL providers focus on subprime consumers who may not have credit; he adds that Splitit uses a customer’s existing credit from a credit card issuer, while it deals with merchants rather than consumers. Openpay has retrenched about 80 employees and shut down its platform, and McGrathNicol is seeking a buyer for the company.

CORPORATES
OPENPAY GROUP LIMITED – ASX OPY, McGRATH NICOL AND PARTNERS SERVICES PTY LTD, SPLITIT PAYMENTS LIMITED – ASX SPT

Openpay collapses, shuts down platform as shares suspended

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Original article by David Swan
The Australian – Page: 13 & 17 : 7-Feb-23

Barry Kogan, Jonathan Henry and Rob Smith from McGrathNicol have been appointed as receivers and managers of Openpay. The ‘buy now, pay later’ provider has advised that customers will now longer be able to use its platform to make new purchases, although they must pay all outstanding balances. Openpay listed on the Australian sharemarket in 2019 following an IPO that raised $50m. Josh Gilbert of trading platform eToro says the BNPL sector has gone from "hero to zero" among investors in recent months. Rival BNPL provider Laybuy recently announced that it will delist.

CORPORATES
OPENPAY GROUP LIMITED – ASX OPY, McGRATH NICOL AND PARTNERS SERVICES PTY LTD, ETORO, LAYBUY GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX LBY

Banks demand buy now, pay later details for home loans

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Original article by Joyce Moullakis
The Australian – Page: 13 & 17 : 23-Dec-22

ING and Macquarie Bank have told mortgage brokers that they are now including buy now, pay later debts when assessing a person’s ability to repay a mortgage or other type of loan. ING has also advised brokers that outstanding Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) or Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) debt amounts need to be included in the loan serviceability assessment, while it is to increase the minimum required deposit from five per cent to 10 per cent to line up with its align with its lenders’ mortgage insurer’s policy on "high-risk postcodes".

CORPORATES
ING AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS LIMITED, MACQUARIE BANK LIMITED – ASX MBL

One in seven buy now, pay later customers had more than 20 loans last year, Choice survey shows

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Original article by Ben Butler
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 16-Sep-22

New data highlights the growing use of ‘buy now, pay later’ services in Australia and the need for greater regulation of the sector. Consumer group Choice has found that 14 per cent of consumers are using BNPL services to pay their energy bills, while one in six are using them to buy groceries. Patrick Veyret of Choice says it is shocking that Australians are being forced to use these services to pay for essentials. He notes that some people are taking out loans with up to 10 different BNPL providers. The sector will be subject to the same regulation as credit providers under reforms that have been flagged by the federal government.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN CONSUMERS’ ASSOCIATION

Labor to regulate buy now, pay later

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Original article by Glenda Korporaal
The Australian – Page: 19 : 27-Apr-22

Shadow financial services minister Stephen Jones has flagged greater regulation of the ‘buy now, pay later’ sector if Labor wins the federal election. Jones says the BNPL sector is operating in an "ambiguous" regulatory space, and he contends that it requires some degree of regulation as it is directly competing with credit providers. He has also indicated that Labor will take action to halt a sharp decline in the number of financial advisers, with many leaving the industry in recent years due to federal government reforms.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Buy now, merge later: Zip, Sezzle in $491m tie-up

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Original article by David Ross
The Australian – Page: 13 & 16 : 1-Mar-22

Zip Co will acquire ‘buy now, pay later’ rival Sezzle in an all-scrip deal that values the latter at $491 million. The transaction comes less than two months after Latitude Financial announced that it would buy Humm’s BNPL and credit card businesses. The announcement coincided with the release of Zip’s results for the six months to 31 December. Zip reported an interim loss of $172.8 million, down from $455.9 million a year earlier, while revenue was up 89 per cent to $302.2 million.

CORPORATES
ZIP CO LIMITED – ASX Z1P, SEZZLE INCORPORATED – ASX SZL, LATITUDE FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP LIMITED – ASX LFS, HUMM GROUP LIMITED – ASX HUM

Buy now, merge later: Zip, Sezzle in $491m tie-up

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Original article by David Ross
The Australian – Page: 13 & 16 : 1-Mar-22

Zip Co will acquire ‘buy now, pay later’ rival Sezzle in an all-scrip deal that values the latter at $491 million. The transaction comes less than two months after Latitude Financial announced that it would buy Humm’s BNPL and credit card businesses. The announcement coincided with the release of Zip’s results for the six months to 31 December. Zip reported an interim loss of $172.8 million, down from $455.9 million a year earlier, while revenue was up 89 per cent to $302.2 million.

CORPORATES
ZIP CO LIMITED – ASX Z1P, SEZZLE INCORPORATED – ASX SZL, LATITUDE FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP LIMITED – ASX LFS, HUMM GROUP LIMITED – ASX HUM

ACCC green-lights Afterpay megadeal

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Original article by James Eyers, Jonathan Shapiro
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 20 : 6-Nov-21

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission has advised that it will not oppose the acquisition of ‘buy now, pay later’ provider Afterpay by US-based Square. The proposed $39bn deal will now be put to a virtual special meeting of Afterpay’s shareholders on 6 December, and chair Elana Rubin has urged them to support the transaction. The deal has also been approved by US antitrust regulators, and it is expected to be cleared by the Foreign Investment Review Board ahead of the shareholders’ meeting.

CORPORATES
AFTERPAY LIMITED – ASX APT, SQUARE INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. FOREIGN INVESTMENT REVIEW BOARD

Aussie BNPL usage the best in the West

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Original article by Lachlan Moffet Gray
The Australian – Page: 19 : 17-Sep-21

Sixty per cent of Australians have used a buy now pay later (BNPL) platform, compared to 47 per cent of US or UK respondents. This is according to a survey by card issuing and payment solutions company Marqeta, with a third of survey respondents stating that they had started using BNPL platforms within the last 18 months. Marqeta country manager for Australia and New Zealand Duncan Currie says the high adoption of BNPL in Australia could in part be due to it being the home country of leading BNPL companies Zip and Afterpay.

CORPORATES
MARQETA, ZIP CO LIMITED – ASX Z1P, AFTERPAY LIMITED – ASX APT

$39 billion purchase of Afterpay highlights value of buy-now-pay-later services such as Zip, Humm and LatitudePay

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 11-Aug-21

The latest Roy Morgan Digital Payments Report shows that 16 million Australians aged 14+ (75.5%) are now aware of buy-now-pay-later services such as Afterpay, Zip, Latitude Pay, Humm and Openpay. The high and growing awareness for buy-now-pay-later services comes as Silicon Valley ‘tech giant’ Square has lodged a bid of $39 billion ($US29 billion) to buy Australian market leader Afterpay. Awareness of buy-now-pay-later services has overtaken that of traditional online payment platforms (74.5%) such as PayPal, Visa, Western Union and masterpass for the first time. Afterpay is the clear market leader, with 73.4% of Australians aware of the service in the year to June 2021, up 3.4% points since February 2021 and up 39.6% points since September 2018. Meanwhile, 52.9% of Australians are now aware of main rival Zip, an increase of 4.3% points since February 2021; awareness of Zip amongst Australians is now rising at a faster pace than Afterpay. The two main buy-now-pay-later services have been joined by a host of second-tier fintech companies in the space, including Humm, LatitudePay and Openpay – and awareness of all three is growing rapidly.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AFTERPAY LIMITED – ASX APT, SQUARE INCORPORATED, ZIP CO LIMITED – ASX Z1P, HUMM GROUP LIMITED – ASX HUM, LATITUDE PAY, OPENPAY GROUP LIMITED – ASX OPY