UK Announces Regulation of ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Lenders

Aisha S Gani, Bloomberg News

A Klarna app page on a mobile phone arranged in London, U.K., on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021. Klarna AB, a Swedish payment provider for online shoppers, is still setting its sights on an initial public offering even after its latest funding round left it roughly twice as valuable as it was a year ago. Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The UK is moving ahead with long-awaited plans to regulate “buy now, pay later” lenders.

Providers such as Klarna, Clearpay and PayPal Holdings Inc. will be required to give consumers key information about their loans and issue credit that is affordable, while users will have the right to take complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service, according to a Treasury statement Monday.

“People should be able to access affordable credit, but with clear protections in place. That is why these proposed regulations are so important,” Andrew Griffith, the economic secretary, said in the statement.

The rules will go through a consultation before the Financial Conduct Authority gets the power to oversee the sector. The move comes two years after the Woolard review said changes were “urgently needed” to regulate the BNPL industry, noting that many consumers didn’t view the interest-free service as a form of credit.

“We welcome the publication of the draft legal powers to enable the FCA to regulate Buy Now Pay Later,” Janine Hirt, chief executive officer at fintech lobby group Innovate Finance, said in a statement. The sector “supports regulation that can provide consistent protection for consumers and a level playing field for providers.”

However providers have “some concerns that the proposals continue to rely on outdated arrangements,” she said, calling for modernization of the Consumer Credit Act and credit rating system. “We would therefore urge further consideration of more appropriate options for BNPL, alongside progressing longer-term reform of the CCA and credit information market,” Hurt said.

Use of BNPL products, which allow users to split the cost of a purchase into three or four payments, ballooned during the pandemic. The Treasury said its proposed rules would protect 10 million customers, while the global market is expected to grow to $600 billion by 2026, according to research firm Global Data.

However, valuations of many BNPL providers have plunged in the past year as concerns grew about their ability to profit with interest rates rising and with regulation looming in the UK and around the world.

(Adds statement from Innovate Finance in fourth and fifth paragraphs)