The “Buy Now Pay Later’’ phenomenon in the payments industry

Abstract

This dissertation concerns the role of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) and its impact on the payment industry, merchants, banks, and customers. Furthermore, an objective of this thesis was to provide Deutsche Bank AG with recommendations for their BNPL product and deliver them information that could help them with the product. To do this, the thesis was split into three parts. These were the Literature Review based on the current status of BNPL research, expert interviews and a consumer survey. Our results found that BNPL is becoming more important in the payment sector and for consumers. Research also showed that BNPL has many benefits both for consumers and merchants. Nevertheless, there are also problems. These include, for example, indebtedness and negative credit ratings for customers and write-offs of receivables for BNPL providers. Furthermore, fees for merchants are high. Based on these findings, this dissertation was able to make recommendations to Deutsche Bank AG for sustainable BNPL management. The bank should focus on its advantages and distinguish its role as a BNPL provider from those of the fintechs.

Date of Award	23 Oct 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Peter V. Rajsingh (Supervisor)