MILAN. Mediobanca, through its consumer credit subsidiary Compass, strengthens its “buy now pay later”: not a real loan but an interest-free deferral of payment. And, with two operations, it aims to accelerate the development of the segment, especially in the field of electronic commerce. It enters with 19.5% in the capital of the Swiss HeidiPay, a fintech company (technology applied to finance) that develops digital platforms to support the “buy now pay later” for e-commerce.
At the same time, it acquires 100% of Soisy, another fintech, in this case Italian, active in loans aimed always for e-commerce with agreements already with 800 digital stores, 70 thousand customers in assets for an annual disbursement of 50 million. Transactions of little significance, with no impact on Core Tier 1, but which “have a strong strategic and industrial value for us”, explains in a note the CEO of Mediobanca, Alberto Nagel. Not only for the technology and knowledge they bring to the segment, which is recent and underdeveloped by banks. But also «for the development of the activity of acquiring new customers».
In fact, it is estimated that in 2023 we can reach 300,000 more customers in this segment, two thirds of which are new to Compass, with whom we can also develop cross selling. In short, «Compass – affirms the CEO Gian Luca Sichel – is today the only banking operator in Italy to have seized the opportunities linked to this business». Which will allow the leap in financing (strong in physical stores since in some sectors of durable goods they also concern 70% of purchases) in e-commerce where yet – as opposed to in the physical world – they have not yet developed.
Payment extensions, accessible with a simple click without the bureaucratic castle that applies to consumer credit – at least until the new regulation expected for 2023 intervenes – can be the pick for expanding the consumer credit business in the digital world. And Compass, thanks to its ability to assess risk, will also be able to go to amounts and durations “typical of consumer credit”, say the institute.
And to extend to the virtual world – and abroad – the payment extensions already provided for physical points of sale with PagoLight, the platform that has 7,000 affiliated stores and which already today sees the disbursement grow by 10 million every month. The target, now, is to reach one billion in the physical and digital market in three years, a size that would take Compass to the highest levels of the market.