Santander launches Zinia business to enter the 'buy now and pay later' business and compete with 'fintech' giants such as Klarna or Afterpay.

Santander has launched a new platform with the name Zinia to enter the business of deferred payment, which in the sector is known as 'buy now pay later' (buy now and pay later).

A business where they had already entered big giants 'fintech' as the Swedish Klarna or the Australian Afterpay (which in Spain works under the name of Clearpay).

The entity has developed this new consumer financing platform within its Digital Consumer Bank division and expects to launch it in several European countries in the coming months.

Now, the first market where it is operational is Germany and the next will be the Netherlands. In Spain, the launch will be in 2022.

Santander launches Zinia business

This deferred payment business is based on alliances with large retail chains to be able to offer their services to the customer within the last step of online shopping.

In this sense, the new platform is born with more than 63,000 points of sale adhered in Europe, according to Santander in a statement.

The business model of these companies is usually that the commerce pays a commission for offering this service and it is the company that offers it that finances it at no cost to the consumer.

The reason for this, as they have explained in previous occasions sources of the sector, is that this type of payment services allows businesses to increase the average ticket and the recurrence of purchase.

Santander launches Zinia business to counter competitors

Zinia's operation is similar. "Zinia's BNPL service simplifies the purchase process for customers by offering the possibility to split the payment in instalments without interest in online and physical stores," the bank explains in the same statement.

This operation is usually viable because the purchase tickets are low and because thanks to technology, the customer's ability to pay is studied through the analysis of data such as when the email or its purchase history was created.

"The operations carried out pass an exhaustive risk control based on machine learning (artificial intelligence) that Openbank has been applying in recent years when granting loans through its technological platform," the bank explains in a statement.

Openbank comments Santander launches Zinia business

"Today we launched a new platform that facilitates and gives flexibility to consumers in the purchase process with the confidence and security of Santander.

We are very satisfied with the expansion that Zinia is having in its first steps, and we hope to achieve strong growth until reaching a leadership position in the buy now, pay later business”, said the CEO of Openbank, Ezequiel Szafie, in the same statement.