IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bis/bisqtr/2312e.html

Buy now, pay later: a cross-country analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Giulio Cornelli
  • Leonardo Gambacorta
  • Livia Pancotto

Abstract

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) schemes let consumers spread their spending over a number of interest-free instalments, which are typically unreported to credit bureaus. BNPL is growing strongly, especially in countries with strong e-commerce, higher inflation, inefficient banking systems and less stringent regulations. Used to a greater extent by young adults, who are typically heavily indebted and have low credit scores, BNPL schemes suffer higher delinquency rates than traditional consumer credit.

Suggested Citation

  • Giulio Cornelli & Leonardo Gambacorta & Livia Pancotto, 2023. "Buy now, pay later: a cross-country analysis," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bis:bisqtr:2312e
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qt2312e.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qt2312e.htm
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2023. "The Importance of Financial Literacy: Opening a New Field," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 137-154, Fall.
    2. Marco Di Maggio & Emily Williams & Justin Katz, 2022. "Buy Now, Pay Later Credit: User Characteristics and Effects on Spending Patterns," NBER Working Papers 30508, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Jon Frost & Leonardo Gambacorta & Yi Huang & Hyun Song Shin & Pablo Zbinden, 2019. "BigTech and the changing structure of financial intermediation," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 34(100), pages 761-799.
    4. Zinman, Jonathan, 2010. "Restricting consumer credit access: Household survey evidence on effects around the Oregon rate cap," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 546-556, March.
    5. Cornelli, Giulio & Frost, Jon & Gambacorta, Leonardo & Rau, P. Raghavendra & Wardrop, Robert & Ziegler, Tania, 2023. "Fintech and big tech credit: Drivers of the growth of digital lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    6. Stijn Claessens & Jon Frost & Grant Turner & Feng Zhu, 2018. "Fintech credit markets around the world: size, drivers and policy issues," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    7. Gambacorta, Leonardo, 2008. "How do banks set interest rates?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(5), pages 792-819, July.
    8. Sirio Aramonte & Fernando Avalos, 2021. "The rise of private markets," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bank for International Settlements, 2024. "Interest rate risk exposures of non-financial corporates and households," CGFS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 70.
    2. Kumar, Ashish & Salo, Jari & Bezawada, Ram, 2024. "The effects of buy now, pay later (BNPL) on customers’ online purchase behavior," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 100(4), pages 602-617.
    3. Bank for International Settlements, 2024. "Literature review on financial technology and competition for banking services," BCBS Working Papers 43, Bank for International Settlements.
    4. Jose Aurazo & Holti Banka & Jon Frost & Anneke Kosse & Thomas Piveteau, 2024. "Central bank digital currencies and fast payment systems: rivals or partners?," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 151.
    5. Felix Aidala & Gizem Koşar & Daniel Mangrum & Wilbert Van der Klaauw, 2025. "Understanding Consumer Demand for “Buy Now, Pay Later”," Staff Reports 1167, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    6. Mukherjee, Shreya, 2025. "Factors impeding buy now, pay later (BNPL) adoption in India: A mixed-method approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    7. Berg, Tobias & Burg, Valentin & Keil, Jan & Puri, Manju, 2025. "The economics of “Buy Now, Pay Later”: A merchant’s perspective," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cornelli, Giulio & De Fiore, Fiorella & Gambacorta, Leonardo & Manea, Cristina, 2024. "Fintech vs bank credit: How do they react to monetary policy?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    2. Cuadros-Solas, Pedro J. & Cubillas, Elena & Salvador, Carlos, 2023. "Does alternative digital lending affect bank performance? Cross-country and bank-level evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    3. Cuadros-Solas, Pedro J. & Cubillas, Elena & Salvador, Carlos & Suárez, Nuria, 2024. "Digital disruptors at the gate. Does FinTech lending affect bank market power and stability?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. Khan, Habib Hussain & Qureshi, Fiza & Jamali, Dima, 2025. "Digital disruption in financing: Are fintech and bigtech credit reshaping corporate access to capital?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    5. Yanfei Dong & Jiayin Hu & Yiping Huang & Han Qiu & Yingguang Zhang, 2025. "The use and disuse of FinTech credit: When buy-now-pay-later meets credit reporting," BIS Working Papers 1239, Bank for International Settlements.
    6. Mahbuba Aktar & Makram El-Shagi, 2026. "The Impact of BigTech and Fintech Credit on Income Inequality," CFDS Discussion Paper Series 2026/5, Center for Financial Development and Stability at Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan, China.
    7. Rapih, Subroto & Susantiningrum, & Wahyono, Budi & Borges, Jorge Tavares & Phongsounthone, Somesanook, 2023. "Financial openness and fintech credit," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    8. Cavoli, Tony & Khan, Isma & Wali Ullah, G.M., 2025. "Social capital and FinTech lending: international evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    9. Sikalao-Lekobane, Onneetse L., 2025. "Do macroprudential policies influence FinTech credit growth?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    10. Doerr, Sebastian & Frost, Jon & Gambacorta, Leonardo & Shreeti, Vatsala, 2023. "Big techs in finance," CEPR Discussion Papers 18665, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    11. BAHNEAN Paul-Gheorghe & MESTERU Emanuel George & BRATU Renate Doina, 2025. "Behavioural Changes And Trends In Commercial Banks' Lending Policies For Companies In Romania - Perspectives For The New Decade," Revista Economica, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 77(3), pages 22-29, December.
    12. Giulio Cornelli & Jon Frost & Leonardo Gambacorta & Raghavendra Rau & Robert Wardrop & Tania Ziegler, 2021. "Fintech and Big Tech Credit: What Explains the Rise of Digital Lending?," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 22(02), pages 30-34, March.
    13. Vives, Xavier & Ye, Zhiqiang, 2025. "Fintech entry, lending market competition, and welfare," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    14. Nguyen, Dat Thanh & Tran, Vuong Thao & Phan, Dinh Hoang Bach, 2025. "Lending in the crowd, receivables in decline: P2P lending and trade credit," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PD).
    15. Kraemer-Eis, Helmut & Botsari, Antonia & Gvetadze, Salome & Lang, Frank & Torfs, Wouter, 2019. "European Small Business Finance Outlook: December 2019," EIF Working Paper Series 2019/61, European Investment Fund (EIF).
    16. Wang, Xiaoting & Hou, Siyuan & Kyaw, Khine & Xue, Xupeng & Liu, Xueqin, 2023. "Exploring the determinants of Fintech Credit: A comprehensive analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    17. Hodula, Martin, 2022. "Does Fintech credit substitute for traditional credit? Evidence from 78 countries," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    18. Uttam Golder & Suborna Barua, 2025. "The dynamic linkage between fintech venture capital funding, bank credit flows, and equity market movement: evidence from a global perspective," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 1-57, December.
    19. Kumar, Ashish & Salo, Jari & Bezawada, Ram, 2024. "The effects of buy now, pay later (BNPL) on customers’ online purchase behavior," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 100(4), pages 602-617.
    20. Cho Man, 2024. "Three Waves of FinTech Innovations and Their Implications for Financial Frauds and Anomalies," International Review of Financial Consumers, Sciendo, vol. 9(2), pages 1-18.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • G40 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - General
    • G50 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - General
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bis:bisqtr:2312e. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Martin Fessler (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bisssch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.