Apple's potential 'buy now, pay later' plan sends sector tumbling

Apple Inc is working on a service that will let users pay for purchases in instalments, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, sending shares of Afterpay Ltd and other "buy now, pay later" (BNPL) companies sharply lower.

The US tech giant will use Goldman Sachs, its partner since 2019 for the Apple Card credit card, as the lender for the loans, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Shares of Australia-listed Afterpay, the country's biggest BNPL provider, slid close to 10% in Wednesday trading. Smaller rival Zip Co Ltd and Sezzle also fell sharply. Nasdaq-listed Affirm Holdings Inc tumbled more than 14% on Tuesday before closing down 10.5%.

The BNPL industry has boomed over the past year due to a pandemic-driven surge in online shopping. The trend has also attracted the attention of mainstream firms such as PayPal Holdings Inc.

The prospect of going up against a company the size of Apple, as well as other likely entrants, would pose a major test to pure-play BNPL firms which have so far gone largely unchallenged.

The Bloomberg report said Apple Pay users would be allowed to split their payments into four interest-free instalments, or across several months with interest.

A Goldman Sachs spokesperson declined to comment. Apple was not immediately available for comment.

Such an offering would rival similar services by Klarna, Afterpay, Zip's Quadpay and Affirm in the United States, the sector's key growth market where competition is intense.

PayPal launched its BNPL service in Australia on Wednesday, challenging Afterpay on its home turf where the U.S. payments giant said it would do away with late fees, an area that earned Afterpay close to A$70 million in fiscal 2020.

A Zip spokesman said Apple`s reported move was "validation that what Zip has been doing is resonating with customers and merchants" and that it was growing customer numbers despite increased competition.