First National Bank of Omaha Rolls out BNPL Offering

First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) on Tuesday (Sept. 21) launched a buy now pay later platform to give its merchant partners the option to allow customers to buy things and pay for them in the future, either a few weeks later or as long as 10 years from the date of purchase.

FNBO worked with operations management and analytics firm EXL and point-of-sale loan origination service Skeps on the BNPL initiative, which can be used both online and in stores.

“BNPL represents the future of retail, allowing consumers to make purchases using more accessible monthly installment payment plans,” said Jerry J. O’Flanagan, executive vice president of the partner-customer segment at FNBO, in the company announcement. “By working with EXL and Skeps, we’ve been able to design a BNPL solution that integrates quickly and seamlessly into merchant partner workflows, providing consumers [with] a variety of convenient financing options at the point of sale through instant processing and loan approval backed by FNBO.”

FNBO’s BNPL platform integrates into partners’ eCommerce sites as well as QR codes and texts in the customers’ brick-and-mortar stores. The partnership brings together credit strategy execution, pre-approvals, back-end technology integration, fraud prevention, know-your-customer (KYC) checks and loan servicing functions, including digital payment assistance, into one portal.

“We’ve combined proprietary data sources, best-of-breed analytics, and our digital capabilities for loan origination and servicing, along with the scale and expertise of a world-class lending institution, to quickly deliver a complete BNPL solution,” said Vivek Jetley, EVP and global head of analytics at EXL, in the joint announcement.

Tushar Srivastava, CEO at Skeps, calls the partnership “another example of the power of Skeps to bring an unparalleled customer experience to credit solutions for merchants’ and lenders’ customers.”

“By partnering with FNBO and EXL, Skeps technology allows banks to compete with FinTech firms by offering their branded credit solutions, such as buy now, pay later or co-branded cards, directly at the point of sale,” he added.

Related news: Goldman’s BNPL Play Strengthens Consumer Financing, Targets Merchant Growth

Last week, Goldman Sachs announced that it’s buying specialty lender GreenSky Inc. in a $2.2 billion all-stock deal, adding to the recent flurry of BNPL acquisitions across the financial sector, including Afterpay Ltd. selling to Square Inc. for $29 billion and PayPal Holdings Inc. buying Japan’s Paidy Inc. for $2.7 billion.