Multiple Covid cases in the family and a subsequent liquidity crunch turned 2021 into the year I finally decided to dip my toe into the instant credit/Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) world. I could line up all my online food order bills in one place; I just had to pay once a fortnight. I wasn’t alone. This is a familiar story for anyone trying to wade through the financial aftermath of two long, hard years of the pandemic. 2021 could very well be the year of instant credit.
As of August 2021, there were over 30 BNPL-focused startups in India, including wallets veteran Mobikwik’s brand new BNPL arm MobiKwik Zip. Things aren’t very different in Southeast Asia, either—bigwigs like Grab and Shopee are building their own BNPL solutions, Australia’s AfterPay stepped foot into Singapore, and Kredivo’s parent, FinAccel, is planning to go public.
But as with every story, this instant credit tale has two sides too. On the one hand, you have those who carefully pick and choose their poison. On the other hand, there are thousands of people who have been sucked into the instant credit whirlpool, lured in by illegal operators with Chinese links and promises of easy credit without documentation.
The consequences have been severe—some users have also died of suicide after being unable to bear the abusive collection methods employed by these companies.
In our today’s article, we looked back at the events that shaped the world of instant credit in India and Southeast Asia in 2021. They also give you a peek into what’s in store for the fintech space in the coming year, including multiple governments’ plans to regulate this vast and nebulous space VFX Studio