BNPL Pushes Private Credit Deeper Into Consumer Risk

The worlds of private credit and buy now, pay later (BNPL) loans are increasingly interlinked.

And as Bloomberg News reported Sunday (June 28), the overlap between these “more opaque” sections of the financial world has caught the notice of credit rating agencies, former regulators and others mindful of possible risks amid increasing consumer strain.

Moody’s Ratings and other companies are considering what could happen if consumers face a recession, or the lending market is hit with a credit event, the report continued. The worry is that the tie between private credit and BNPL means that what happens in one sector could cause ripples in the other.

“If there is a significant disruption in private credit, then we may see a scaling back of the backing private credit has for BNPL loans,” Nick Maynard, vice president of research at Juniper Research, told Bloomberg.

Another concern is the changing regulatory environment around BNPL, with the White House’s attempting to halt efforts by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to police the BNPL industry, the report added.

“The way these loans are ultimately transmitted through the financial system can have a major effect on lenders’ incentives, and that’s what the CFPB paid close attention to,” said Rohit Chopra, the bureau’s former director. “A consumer reasonably expects that if they’re getting a loan, the lender is expecting that they’re going to pay it back. But we saw in the mortgage crisis that all of those expectations broke down.”

The report also spoke with consumers like Washington D.C. resident Verdell Wright, who uses BNPL for everyday purchases to manage his cash flow while he’s out of work.

“I’m not just some irresponsible person who wants Jordans today,” Wright, a Rutgers University graduate with two master’s degrees, told Bloomberg. “You can be making over $100,000 and it could not be enough.”

That’s in keeping with research from PYMNTS Intelligence, which found consumers earning at least $150,000 per year used BNPL and around double the rate of people who make less than $50,000 annually.

In April of last year, 19% of high-income consumers reported using BNPL compared with 10% of lower-income respondents. By November, that gap had increased to 22% versus 7%. And by March of 2026, usage came to 20% among high earners vs. 10% for low-income consumers.

“At no point during the period examined did low-income consumers overtake affluent households in BNPL adoption,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this month.

In his comments to Bloomberg, Wright argued that consumers should not have to rely on debt to cover basic household purchases.

“They are capitalizing off the fact that people cannot afford their groceries,” he said.