After both Apple and PayPal introduced buy now pay later services aimed to crush AfterPay’s market dominance last week, the company has responded by scoring a financial services licence, and launching a customer deposits app.
“Money by Afterpay” will operate in partnership with Westpac, as the regulated deposit account and card issuer, while Afterpay’s newly-minted license means it will be allowed to distribute deposit products, and debit cards.
The app will be available from October, and will also allow customers to use Afterpay through approved merchants. It will launch with an interest rate of 1 per cent.
“We believe we can change money for the next generation, and their attitudes towards it,” Afterpay executive vice president Lee Hatton told The Australian.
“We want to become the go-to app for everything to do with money. We‘ve decided [to build this app] because of big societal shifts, but also too because our mission at Afterpay has always been financial freedom for all, and we want to solve this first for under-35 females, so we’ve really targeted them.
“This app is an opportunity to redefine the way this generation thinks about money. We’re going to empower with a money-positive mindset, the whole premise of Afterpay has always been to get what you want when you want it.”
