Congressional lawmakers want answers from a Montana financial company that offers buy now, pay later (BNPL) options to gun buyers.
In a letter dated Monday (Aug. 29), 18 Democrats asked Credova Financial for information about what measures the company has to prevent guns purchased with BNPL financing from being quickly resold.
“While other major BNPL providers explicitly prohibit firearm purchases, Credova has apparently sought to partner with gun merchants to aggressively advertise its BNPL product as a payment option for gun purchases, increasing the apparent affordability of firearms to consumers,” reads the letter, addressed to Credova CEO Dusty Wunderlich.
The lawmakers want Credova to answer a number of questions about its business, including whether customers who have used its financing options have used those guns to “commit unlawful acts of violence,” and whether guns it helped provide were used in recent high-profile mass shootings, such as the one in Uvalde, Texas.
The letter also argues that some retailers that offer financing from Credova have used “dangerous terminology” to market these offers, such as “shoot now, pay later” or “get protected now, pay later.”
Credova was not immediately available for comment Monday. The company’s website carries the slogan “Adventure Now, Pay Later,” showing a variety of categories — biking, hiking, fishing, camping and hunting — as well as links to a number of gun dealers.
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Read more: BNPL Regs Likely Coming Late 2022 for EU, UK But U.S. Lags Behind
PYMNTS reported last month that a number of major world financial regulators — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the U.S., the Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority in the U.K., the EU Parliament in Europe, and the Treasurer in Australia — have been working on developing new regulations for the BNPL space.
In the U.S., the CFPB last year launched a market monitoring inquiry, seeking information from five BNPL providers followed by a public consultation at the beginning of this year. Among the respondents to the public consultation was a group of 21 attorneys general, who urged the bureau to regulate BNPL.
