Equipifi, Q2 Team to Offer BNPL to Digital Bank Customers

FinTech equipifi has launched an integration with Q2’s digital banking platform, offering Q2’s customers access to its buy now, pay later (BNPL) solution.

According to a Tuesday (Nov. 1) news release, the collaboration — happening via the Q2 Partner Accelerator program — will combine equipifi’s BNPL tool, which “integrates with banks and credit unions to curate offers that consumers can view, accept and manage through their existing banking apps.”

Earlier this year, equipifi raised $12 million in Series A funding to continue rolling out its BNPL service to banks and credit unions. The Scottsdale, Arizona-based equipifi had already signed multiyear contracts to provide the service for seven financial institutions (FIs).

“Consumers rely on their primary financial institution to know them and their financial goals,” equipifi Co-founder and CEO Bryce Deeney said in May.

“That’s why even as BNPL has been seeing rapid adoption through third-party lenders, the majority of consumers still look to their trusted financial institutions for a better option. equipifi powers banks and credit unions to take their customers shopping, providing a single place to view, accept and manage their BNPL plans on their existing online banking app,” Deeney said.

Read more: BNPL Transparency May Be the Missing Link to Customer Loyalty

With this launch, equipifi is tapping into a fast-growing population of BNPL users. PYMNTS research has shown that while buy now, pay later made up approximately 2% of all payments worldwide toward the end of 2021, its sales volume is on track to double, exceeding $181 billion this year.

As adoption rises, with vendors such as Klarna, Affirm and Afterpay reporting year-over-year growth of anywhere from 46% to 104%, retailers have gotten on board, for good reason: A recent report noted that nearly half of consumers spend more when using BNPL compared to when they use credit cards.

“Rising competition in the space has BNPL providers starting to offer loyalty programs as well, but loyalty in BNPL appears to be fragmented at best,” PYMNTS wrote in June. “Consumers are driven by opportunity — the best deal, the best shipping option, the availability of what they want. Most BNPL sales are associated with transient consumers.”