Latitude Financial plans to take on Flexigroup’s Humm and Fintech darling Afterpay as it fights for a slice of the burgeoning buy-now-pay-later market.
In his new role as managing director of Latitude Financial, Australia Post’s former $5.6 million man Ahmed Fahour has been focusing on bringing the digital payments and finance company into more retail stores.
Shortly after he joined the company in October 2018, Latitude acquired New Zealand-based BNPL service GenoaPay, which expanded rapidly to have a presence in more than 2000 merchants across the Tasman.
Latitude Pay, the company’s soon to be launched BNPL platform is now due to go live in Australian stores next month according to the Australian.
The new platform marks an expansion of Latitude’s existing business providing “interest free” payment plans through retailers like Harvey Norman, Kogan, and JB Hi-Fi.
Latitude also provides personal loans, credit cards and insurance services, and is now third behind Westpac and CBA in providing consumer loans above $2000.
The news comes as the company is rumoured to be once again nearing an initial public offering after pulling out during the advanced stages of an IPO last year.
The BNPL sector has been heating up recently, with new platforms being launched and others being consolidated in recent months.
Afterpay is currently being audited by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre over compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism laws.
