Santander, Allianz Trade and Two Debut BNPL for Large Businesses

Santander

Santander, Allianz Trade and eCommerce platform Two have launched a new buy now, pay later (BNPL) solution for large businesses.

The BNPL product is aimed at the B2B eCommerce market and will enable large multinational corporations to offer commercial customers a deferred payment option at checkout, according to a Monday (Jan. 6) press release.

As part of the partnership, Allianz Trade will provide credit insurance to protect against the risk of non-payment, B2B payment solution provider Two will power the technology behind the new platform, and Santander’s Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) unit will provide the capital to fund the loans, the release stated.

François Burtin, global head of eCommerce at Allianz Trade, said in the release that the solution “will be distributed worldwide and aims to allow large corporates to develop their online sales by offering deferred payments to existing and new customers without being exposed to non-payment risks while benefiting from immediate and guaranteed payments.”

With a single application programming interface (API) integration powered by Two, Santander CIB finances upfront payments to sellers and credit terms to buyers globally, while Allianz Trade protects the whole value chain against non-payment risk (e.g. credit risk). Sellers will have global multicurrency support to dramatically reduce the need for complex operating models with multiple providers across technology, trade insurance, and trade credit, the release stated.

Allianz Trade will assess credit requests instantly through its API using its database of commercial, financial and strategic information about more than 80 million businesses worldwide, according to the release.

Using the consequent risk score, Santander CIB will be able to make financing decisions in real time, allowing for near-instant approval of BNPL loans to businesses.

The latest product adds to Santander’s BNPL offerings and follows the launch of the bank’s B2C BNPL service Zinia, which was first debuted in Germany in 2021 before expanding to the Netherlands last year.

For its part, Allianz Trade is also expanding its footprint in the space, having already worked with Two to develop a B2B BNPL product for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the United Kingdom.

More recently, the firm teamed up with the French startup Pledg in September to create another BNPL solution for B2B eCommerce sites and marketplaces.

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