A recent survey of 2,000 U.K. consumers conducted by Opinium on behalf of Barclays found that more than a third don’t fully understand the consequences of missing ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) repayments, and 52% are unaware that “unregulated BNPL providers” don’t have to carry out “robust affordability checks.”

Why should we care?
Barclays’ survey lays out key concerns with BNPL. By “unregulated BNPL providers” we might assume that’s a shot across the bow to fintech, non-bank BNPL providers that have been increasingly the subject of greater scrutiny in some jurisdictions, including the U.K. Back in April, Barclays U.K. entered into a tie-up with Amazon to provide point-of-sale financing – going head-to-head with fintech providers. The concerns highlighted in the Barclays survey are the subject of increased chatter among lawmakers and regulators on how to protect BNPL consumers. “To protect consumers against taking on more debt than they can comfortably afford to repay, and to ensure minimum standards exist across the sector, we believe regulation should ensure all BNPL providers are required to undertake appropriate affordability assessments, consistent with those in place for other regulated consumer credit products,” Antony Stephen, CEO of Barclays Partner Finance, said in a statement. Meanwhile, consumer advocates in the U.S. argue that federal and state regulators should collect and analyze more data on the sector.