On January 26, Santander, a popular Spanish bank, announced that it will launch its own ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) service across its European markets as part of its efforts to boost revenue and fight off competition from other fintech rivals. The Spanish bank said that it will launch Zinia, a new BNPL service app, that allows consumers to pay in interest-free instalments either online or at physical points of sale. The lender plans to roll out the platform across its European markets this year, beginning with the Netherlands. The move marks the bank’s efforts to expand its presence in the wider European markets as it aims to acquire more market share from fintech rivals such as Klarna, Clearpay and Afterpay.
Santander disclosed that the technology behind Zinia has been operating in Germany for the last year where it has already gained over 2 million customers. The bank plans to launch the ‘buy now, pay later’ service in Italy, France, Britain and the Nordic nations as well as in its US market.
Ezequiel Szafir, the CEO of Santander’s Openbank online banking division, said: “Today we are launching a new platform that offers consumers a convenient and flexible payment option with the security and trust provided by a large financial group like Santander. We are delighted with Zinia’s early expansion and aim to become a leader in the buy now, pay later market”.
The announcement by Santander comes as Klarna expanded its new physical card to British consumers today as part of its first journey into UK offline payments after it had launched the card in Sweden and Germany in the recent past.
How Santander Is Using Technology to Solve Real Problems
The announcement by Santander to embark on launching the ‘buy now, pay later’ platform comes at a time when the lender aims to offer the best payment solutions and services to its users. In November 2020, Santander acquired several highly specialized technological assets from Wirecard’s merchant payments business. The bank made the acquisition to expand its open global payments platform architecture by improving its services in trade and payments. As a result, the acquisition has reinforced and accelerated Santander’s growth in Europe. Such efforts come at a time when Santander has been focusing on international expansion, increasing its product development capability and has already penetrated Latin America with its merchant forex trading platform.
