西班牙桑坦德银行正在欧洲推出自己的“先买后付”服务，以抵御试图吃掉其午餐的金融科技竞争对手。
该贷方周三表示，它将在今年从荷兰开始在其市场推出 Zinia，这是一款让购物者可以按月分期付款免息购买的应用程序。
桑坦德表示，Zinia 背后的技术过去一年一直在德国投入使用，已经积累了超过 200 万客户。
桑坦德银行 Openbank 网上银行部门首席执行官 Ezequiel Szafir 表示，该公司的目标是“成为先买后付市场的领导者”。
他吹捧“大型金融集团提供的安全和信任”是桑坦德银行产品与 Klarna 和 Afterpay 等其他 BNPL 产品区别的关键因素。
由于在冠状病毒大流行中电子商务的加速采用，现在购买，以后付款或 BNPL 计划在过去几年中获得了很大的吸引力。
这推动了该行业的发展，并引起了 PayPal 和 Jack Dorsey's Block 等大公司的兴趣，后者于去年 8 月同意以 290 亿美元收购 Afterpay。
主要贷方正在寻求参与其中，高盛同意以 22 亿美元收购金融科技贷方 GreenSky。在英国，巴克莱银行与亚马逊建立了合作伙伴关系，让这家美国电子商务巨头为客户提供分期贷款。
在利率处于历史低位时，它可以为他们提供利润丰厚的新收入来源。大多数 BNPL 公司通过在每笔交易中向零售商收取少量费用来赚钱，以换取在结账时提供他们的付款方式。
尽管如此，对BNPL计划的需求激增引起了监管机构的担忧，他们担心该行业正在让消费者更容易积累债务。在英国，政府计划引入对 BNPL 产品的监管，而美国监管机构正在调查该领域的一些大型供应商。
Santander launches a buy now, pay later service to take on fintech rivals
Spanish bank Santander is launching its own “buy now, pay later” service in Europe, in a bid to fend off fintech rivals trying to eat its lunch.
The lender said Wednesday it will roll out Zinia, an app that lets shoppers split their purchases over monthly installments interest-free, across its markets this year, starting with the Netherlands.
The technology behind Zinia has been operational in Germany for the past year, where it has already accrued more than 2 million customers, Santander said.
Ezequiel Szafir, CEO of Santander's Openbank online banking division, said the company aims to “become a leader in the buy now, pay later market.”
He touted “the security and trust provided by a large financial group” as a key factor differentiating Santander's offering from other BNPL products, such as Klarna and Afterpay.
Buy now, pay later or BNPL programs have gained lots of traction over the past couple of years thanks to accelerated adoption of e-commerce in the coronavirus pandemic.
This has turbocharged the growth of the industry, and led to interest from major companies such as PayPal and Jack Dorsey's Block, which agreed to purchase Afterpay for $29 billion last August.
Major lenders are looking to get in on the action, with Goldman Sachs agreeing to buy fintech lender GreenSky for $2.2 billion. In the U.K., Barclays has a partnership with Amazon that lets the U.S. e-commerce giant offer customers installment loans.
It could provide them a lucrative new revenue stream at a time when interest rates are at historic lows. Most BNPL firms make money by charging retailers a small fee on each transaction, in return for providing their payment method at checkout.
Still, the surge in demand for BNPL plans has caused concern for regulators, who worry the sector is making it easier for consumers to accumulate debt. In the U.K., the government plans to usher in regulation for BNPL products, while U.S. regulators are probing some of the large providers in the space.
