The buy-now, pay-later services that let shoppers settle up for their purchases in four interest-free installments have so far been the domain of start-ups. But now a traditional financial player is moving in with an option of its own: Mastercard, the New York Times reported. The company announced plans yesterday for a new pay-later offering that it said would enable banks, financial technology companies, digital wallets and other lenders to provide a variety of installment payment options to their customers, whether they are making purchases online or in a store. Given Mastercard’s infrastructure that processes credit and debit payments, the program has the potential to ramp up competition in a segment dominated by upstarts like Afterpay, Sezzle, Klarna and Zip. “Merchants are able to accept this with zero effort on their part, either for online transactions or in-store,” said Craig Vosburg, Mastercard’s chief product officer. Mastercard said that it was already working with several financial institutions, including Barclays, Fifth Third, Huntington, SoFi and Synchrony, to offer products of their own. The program will become available in the first quarter of next year in the U.S., as well as in Australia and Britain. Even existing pay-later players could plug into Mastercard’s program if they choose to, which could broaden their reach — one of their biggest challenges.
