The positive side of the coin is these moves plus the others by the likes of $CommBank(CBA.AU)$ signals loud and clear that the BNPL offering is here to stay and the winners are likely to prosper in a meaningful manner for a couple of obvious reasons:
The BNPL offering is attractive to the growing younger generation and even while margins are likely to contract, they should remain attractive especially when we consider the “fat” in the credit card industry.
Once customer loyalty has been secured the players will be able to roll out related offerings such as online equity trading, personal finance, local/international flexible loans and even crypto.
We also shouldn’t forget that the previous launch of competing products actually led to an acceleration in merchant and customer awareness and with $苹果(AAPL.US)$ now involved this is likely to be repeated in the short-term while margin/consolidation feel inevitable longer-term.
Arguably the biggest issue over the coming months for this volatile sector is sentiment, it’s definitely unlikely to be good following this news and a further 20-25% fall by local leader $Afterpay Touch Group Ltd(APT.AU)$ for example wouldn’t be a surprise, especially considering it's well within the usual swings of both the sector and stocks. We should also be mindful that the smaller players generally trade with a higher Beta i.e. their moves are exaggerated.