Mastercard today unveiled Mastercard Installments, a unique and innovative Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) program that delivers greater choice at checkout, both in-store and online.
Mastercard Installments uses the power of the company’s trusted network to make BNPL available to millions of consumers and merchants worldwide. It enables banks, lenders, fintechs, and wallets to offer a variety of flexible installment options to consumers – including a zero percent interest, pay-in-four model – without onerous integration into the merchant infrastructure, allowing them to quickly offer secure and competitive BNPL experiences at scale.
Mastercard Installments enables consumers to digitally access BNPL offers, either pre-approved through their lender’s mobile banking app or through instant approval during checkout. Pre-approved installments can be used directly on a merchant’s website, and can be stored in digital wallets including Click-to-Pay, to then be used online or in-store wherever Mastercard is accepted. Instant approvals during checkout will be available through Click-to-Pay shortly after launch.
Consumers will have full transparency on lender practices up-front during the approval process, and unlike most current BNPL offerings, consumers will continue to benefit from zero liability fraud protection, the ability to challenge unrecognized charges, and the peace of mind that comes with Mastercard’s acceptance footprint.
Mastercard Installments builds on Mastercard’s investments in open banking that help deliver a simple and convenient experience for consumers, merchants and lenders. As an elective option for lenders, with consumer consent, account-level transaction histories can be considered as part of the underwriting process, enabling credit to be safely extended to a greater number of shoppers. Open banking technology also facilitates the consumer’s preferred method of repayment, which may be their checking or savings account, a Mastercard debit card, or another payment product.
Mastercard Installments will first come to market in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom (UK). Mastercard is working with Barclays US, Fifth Third, FIS, Galileo, Huntington, Marqeta, SoFi, and Synchrony in the U.S., and with Qantas Loyalty and Latitude in Australia. Mastercard is committed to supporting its customers across the globe to offer the Mastercard Installments program, with plans to scale to other markets in the future.