What went down: At an invitation-only dinner on day two of Money20/20, Dan Van Dyke, VP of financial services content at Insider Intelligence, talked about all things buy now, pay later (BNPL) with a group of executive attendees. More specifically, he posed the pertinent question: Where’s BNPL headed?
The environment: It’s no secret that players in the BNPL space and the wider fintech industry find themselves “in the eye of the perfect storm,” as Van Dyke put it. BNPL providers are contending with factors that include:
Incoming regulation. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued plans to regulate BNPL firms much as it does credit card companies. These plans follow its release of an 80-page report last month, after a nearly yearlong investigation, that highlighted BNPL’s growth and consumer risks—like debt accumulation and overextension.