Is BNPL in Bulgaria “open for business”

In the Bulgarian market, the presence and penetration of BNPL products and services is still limited, compared to the more mature markets in US and Europe, which is a guarantee for strong growth potential.

From the banking sector only UniCredit and TBI Bank offer quazi-BNPL options to consumers. From the non-banking sector, a handful of players like MFG, Vnoska.bg and NewPay currently provide a type of BNPL payment option.

• Unicredit consumer financing (shopping card) offers a hybrid product, a mix of BNPL and a credit card. It allows installment payments when a product is purchased, its drawbacks are that it can be used only in physical stores and has very limited penetration and time-consuming approval process.
• TBI Bank is the only traditional bank, which provides real BNPL services. The bank is offering two different models of BNPL. One is 4 equal installments with 0% interest for 3 month period and the other is for 2 equal installments with 0% interest for 30 days. In both models, it is mandatory 25% down payment at the moment of purchase.
• MFG provides BNPL based installment payments through its brand Newpay. However the payments are limited to 15 days only. The amount limits are: 100.00 - 400.00 BGN. Their presence on the e-commerce market is also limited.
• Vnoska.bg - It is a startup company offering to their customers cards with which they can purchase products from selected stores (online and offline). Once the customer uses the card has up to 12 months to return the amount on equal installments. It has a limited penetration as of this moment.
• NewPay.bg - is a BNPL payment platform of Viva Credit (fast loan provider), which allows purchasing of products in a selected network of merchants up to 400 BGN with deferred 30 days payment.

In the Bulgarian market, cash payment on delivery is still the most preferred for online purchases accounting for approximately 80% of all purchase payments, says the Executive director of NewPay, Ivaylo Ivanov - "This is the case for all online stores. The main factor relates to our built-in mistrust as Bulgarians towards online trade, as well as online payments.”

However, global digitalization trends are in the direction of breaking this monopoly worldwide across all business segments. Bulgaria is not an exception and follows, albeit slowly, the EU trends, which indicates that BNPL will only continue to emerge in our market as well.

We plan to speed up this transformation by providing to all players fast, transparent, secure and low cost digital payment options, including unique direct debit and recurring transactions, connecting both sides (lenders and consumers).