Mastercard Taps Into Buy-Now, Pay-Later Trend With Acquisition of Vyze -- MarketWatch
April 16 2019 - 6:54AM
Dow Jones News
By Emily Bary
Mastercard Inc. (MA) is wading into the buy-now, pay-later
movement as consumers adopt a more nuanced view of credit
purchases.
The company announced Tuesday that it has acquired Vyze, a
business that lets merchants offer financing options from various
lenders both online and at the point of sale. Terms of the deal
weren't disclosed.
While Vyze isn't a lender, it connects merchants with various
lending options. Blake Rosenthal, Mastercard's vice president of
global acceptance, told MarketWatch that the platform is attractive
to merchants because it lets them add multiple lenders with a
single integration and is attractive to consumers because the
various options for installment purchases increase the probability
that they are approved for financing.
"What it provides for consumers is additional choice at the
point of sale, which is very consistent strategically with how we
are thinking of things," Rosenthal said. She expects that
Mastercard's existing relationships with merchants and lenders can
help the Vyze platform grow.
Vyze currently works with lenders like AllianceData and
FlexShopper and merchants such as Home Depot Inc. (HD) and
NordicTrack.
Installment purchases are back in vogue among millennials, who
are using lenders like Afterpay and Klarna to split transactions
into more manageable chunks, even for items that wouldn't
ordinarily have been layaway targets, such as clothing from Urban
Outfitters Inc. (URBN) and its suite of brands. Afterpay, which
works with the Urban stores, offers no-interest solutions but
charges late fees to those who don't pay on time. Klarna, which
counts Visa Inc. (V) as an investor, works with companies like
Sonos Inc. (SONO).
Mastercard shares have gained 22% over the past three months, as
the S&P 500 has risen 11%. The company is scheduled to report
earnings on April 30.
Write to Emily Bary at ebary@marketwatch.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 16, 2019 06:39 ET (10:39 GMT)
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