Australian BNPL firm Zip’s credit performance in local market weakens further

AUSTRALIA’S Zip said on Thursday (Jul 20) it faced a jump in bad debts at home grounds, its biggest market by revenue, during the March-June quarter due to poor domestic consumer credit and discrepancies with third-party payment processors.

The country’s biggest standalone buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) provider said Australia’s June-quarter net bad debts, which are written off as a percentage of the total transaction value (TTV), came in at 3.1 per cent – its highest value since the first quarter of 2022.

BNPL companies typically offer on-the-spot interest-free short-term loans with minimal credit checks that spread payments over weeks or months, and are largely used by cash-strapped people taking debt, sometimes more than they can afford.

“Zip AU experienced net bad debts ... reflecting a combination of controlled TTV, seasonality, increasing softness in the external environment impacting consumer credit more broadly ... Zip AU has again adjusted settings and implemented initiatives in response to current market conditions,” the company said in a statement.

The company, however, posted a fourth-quarter revenue of A$193.8 million (S$174.3 million), an increase of 21.1 per cent over last year alongside a 6.4 per cent jump in transaction volumes to A$2.3 billion.

Shares of the BNPL firm were up 13.2 per cent at A$0.49 by 0027 GMT, outperforming the broader benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index, which climbed 0.5 per cent.

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Net bad debts as a percentage of TTV improved for the group, with improvements in the US business, partially offset by softness in the broader Australian credit market, the company added. REUTERS