In August, a US-headquartered fintech called Affirm began offering installment loans in the UK, its first market outside North America. The company, which allows you to pay over time without paying late fees, makes individual assessment of each application before granting credit. Affirm’s UK services, licensed by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, currently offer both interest-free and interest-bearing repayments with fixed interest charged on the original loan amount.
This expansion has launched Affirm partnerships with two merchants in the U.K. – the travel agency Alternative Airlines and payments firm Fexco – and will add more brands in the coming months. The U.K. location was picked by Affirm’s CEO Max Levchin because it has many merchants requesting it as well as a native English-speaking population to work with Affirm lenders and borrowers. Despite that focus on the English-speaking world, Levchin said, Affirm is also interested in expanding to non-English-speaking regions in the future. In that case, more explicit preparation will be necessary.
Source: CNBC
