The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | May 6th

By Gaia Lamperti

The Weekly Wrap is published every Friday and recaps the week’s main stories and deals, as well as upcoming events and announcements. For Prime subscribers only.

The Big Story

Starting June 1st, Klarna will share data on its customers’ payments of BNPL loans to the credit bureaus TransUnion and Experian. This information is expected to impact customers’ credit scores in the next 12 to 18 months, Klarna said, and eventually could hinder customers’ ability to get credit for loans such as mortgages.

The announcement comes as the UK government is looking to bring in regulation for the BNPL industry by 2023,  aimed at reining the sector over fears it is putting young people into debt.

However, some have called for action to protect the most vulnerable customers and ask for clearer terms and conditions to more regulations for BNPL schemes. “Interest-free payment plans may tempt shoppers, but there’s no doubt that this can lead to people being trapped in a cycle of growing repayments,” commented Rob McElroy, CEO at software development company Sopra Steria Financial Services Limited.

“With this in mind, it is paramount that regulations are put in place to provide strong customer protection: from providing consumers with a better understanding of the total lifetime cost of the BNPL product to clearer terms and conditions and appropriate vulnerability checks. Only when these issues have been addressed, and the industry has wider regulations can we have more confidence that the consumer is being protected and ultimately able to better manage their finances,” he added.

Deals of the week

• kevin. raises $65 million to bring A2A payments to existing POS payment terminals
• Kard raises $23 million Series A to power card rewards
• Januar closes a €6 million seed round, making it the largest in Danish history
• Cheq announces a $2 million raise to bring crypto payments to the masses
• Estateguru announces a funding campaign of up to €3 million on Seedrs
• Finbots.AI raises $3 million from Accel in Series A round

Be on the lookout for

The Bank of England has announced that interest rates have been raised to 1.0%. Interest rates have risen for the third time in four months as the Bank of England tries to soften the impact of the rise in the cost of living. The rise (from 0.5% to 0.75%) represents the highest interest rate level since March 2020 and is the result of the cost of living and strong employment in the country.

Events & Appointments

• The Cyber Security Africa Summit on 18th May 2022 is an exclusive virtual event for cybersecurity professionals to engage with leaders and discuss the future of cybersecurity. IBSi is partnering with the event.
• FinovateSpring will return to in-person events from 18th to 20th May 2022 at Hilton San Francisco Union Square, San Francisco and IBS Intelligence is a proud research partner. What are you waiting for?