Payments Pulse: BNPL’s banking glow-up & Hey Block, you there?

In finance & crypto, today’s misstep might just be tomorrow’s masterstroke

The payments world is buzzing with fresh developments this week, especially on the BNPL front.

Let’s talk about two payment-space scenarios where, based on my observations, the game has changed hands:

• First, we have the rise of banks shaking hands with BNPL providers to supercharge their offerings — something that just a few years ago would have had most banks and regulators clutching their pearls.
• Second, let’s check in on Block, which was once slammed by analysts for its Bitcoin obsession, but now it’s standing tall with all its chips in play.

Let’s start with the BNPL scene.

BNPL + Banks: The new power couple?

Banks are finally getting cozy with BNPL. Who knew? For a while, BNPL was that rebellious teen that no one quite understood, especially regulators and financial institutions. But now, well, let’s just say it’s making some unexpected alliances.

Affirm Card opens doors for banks: Affirm is bringing its Affirm Card, which offers both credit and debit features with pay-over-time, to third-party issuers. This means banks can now jump on the BNPL bandwagon with the Affirm Card, which first launched in 2021. 

Through a partnership with FIS, Affirm is giving banks the chance to offer this pay-over-time service to their customers without asking them to carry around an extra card. Any bank that partners with FIS can now provide its version of the Affirm Card; no new plastic is required. So, in a way, it’s BNPL, but with a side of bank credibility. How’s that for a plot twist?

Klarna is the chosen one for JPM’s B2B BNPL offering: J.P. Morgan Chase is making a major move in the payments space by teaming up with Swedish BNPL provider Klarna to bring BNPL options to its business customers.

Through this partnership, businesses using J.P. Morgan Chase’s payments commerce platform will now have access to a BNPL service, giving them the flexibility to break payments over time. The integration is set to launch later this year.

Block Check: Is Dorsey’s vision finally paying off?

Switching gears to Block — in 2022, I did a story on Block and asked a question that seemed almost heretical at the time: Should Jack Dorsey’s Block return to its roots? Analysts thought Jack Dorsey was off his rocker for diving headfirst into Bitcoin a few years ago. They believed that he was betting the farm on a volatile digital currency with questionable prospects.

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