Apple's lease-to-own device program is not a payment feature, it is the financialization of hardware. Who holds the residual risk, and who profits.
BNPL quietly became a balance sheet business. Who funds the receivables, who eats the credit cycle, and where the margin survives as banks move in.
BNPL was invisible to the bureaus. That invisibility is ending in 2026, and the repricing of the model is just beginning. Three structural shifts.
BNPL Explained: How Buy Now Pay Later Actually Works Buy Now Pay Later, or BNPL, processed over $300 billion in global transaction volume in 2023 -
Is BNPL a payment product or a lending product? Buy Now Pay Later providers built large businesses by sitting between merchants and consumers, offering installment credit
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