Barclays US Consumer Bank will offer point-of-sale financing installment options through a partnership with fintech Amount. Barclays will offer merchants an option to have the POS payment under the merchant’s brand.
The new offering, which is expected to go live with merchants later this year, will be powered by Amount’s platform for POS financing that has features such as fraud prevention, verification and account management.
Amount is a technology provider for banks and financial institutions and has been investing in its retail banking and point of sale businesses. Put simply, Amount’s mission is to help financial institutions “go digital in months—not years.” FIs such as Banco Popular, HSBC, Regions Bank and TD Bank are just some of the banks that use Amount’s technology in an effort to simplify their transition to digital financial services.
Meanwhile, Barclays US Consumer Bank provides financial services and is a co-branded credit card issuer in the US.
Amount Chief Revenue Officer Kevin Lewis told FinLedger that this partnership will help Barclays meet the demand its seeing in the point of sale/installment financing space.
“On the point of sale side, we’re helping banks catch up and ultimately beat those other fintech players, which we think they’re well positioned to do because of the size, their credibility, their brand in the market, as well as their low cost of capital and their large existing customer base,” Lewis said.
The point of sale industry is a market that’s “white hot and evolving rapidly right under our noses,” Lewis said.
“You see customers that are transitioning from a credit card to installment payment solutions and they’re able to do it because of the advancements in technology,” he said. “They’re able to access installment financing solutions with that same ease of transaction that you would typically have used a credit card for historically.”
Amount has over 400 employees, processed nearly $8 billion in loans and its retail banking solution has facilitated transactions for over a million consumers.
“Nearly one-third of U.S. consumers have already used a buy now, pay later service, and the demand is expected to continue to grow as consumers become more comfortable with the transparency and ease of use of flexible payment options,” Denny Nealon, CEO of Barclays U.S. Consumer Bank said in a statement. “The time is right to enter the U.S. market and give consumers customized, loyalty-driven transparent POS installment loan programs at some of the country’s most successful travel, entertainment, retail and affinity institutions.”
This isn’t the first time Barclays US Consumer Bank and Amount have teamed up. Barclays US Consumer Bank in partnership with Barclays Principal Investments, also participated in Amount’s Series C funding round. Amount used the funding to scale its R&D and M&A strategies.
“We see a fundamental change and acceleration in the way POS technology is being delivered to end consumers, as well as banks and other infrastructure partners,” Kester Keating, Head of U.S. Principal Investments at Barclays said in a statement. “Amount is at the forefront of this change, and we’re delighted to support the company with an equity investment.”