Machine learning rewrote credit decisioning, but the binding constraint is not accuracy. It is the compliance machinery needed to deploy a model.
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.
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