Pine Labs, Atome to expand local ‘buy now pay later’ acceptance

• Atome to tap into Pine Lab’s network of 1k merchants in Malaysia
• Pine Lab claims it has 95% market share of offline BNPL services in India

PINE Labs, a merchant commerce platform, announced that it has partnered with buy now pay later (BNPL) platform Atome, to expand its BNPL acceptance in Malaysia. 

This offering is said to enable seamless, flexible instalment payment options across over thousands of merchant establishments in Malaysia that are already on the Pine Labs network, Pine Labs said in a statement.

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift to digital payments in Malaysia and a growing number of merchants are now integrating digital payment options at the point of sale, it said.

Citing a report by data analytics company GlobalData, Pine Labs states that real-time payment transactions in Malaysia have surpassed 68 million in 2020, an increase by over 800% from seven million in 2019. 

BNPL is fast-emerging as a popular payment method in Asia and is expected to more than double its market share by 2024, according to the 2021 Global Payments Report by FIS-Worldpay.

Pine Labs claimed to have pioneered the BNPL category in India where it now has 95% market share of offline BNPL services.

The company said it is accelerating BNPL payment acceptance and last-mile retail transaction technology in the Malaysian market and has already onboarded merchants and top banks like CIMB Bank, AmBank, HSBC, Affin Bank, and RHB Bank on its BNPL platform.

“With Atome, we are able to open newer categories for affordability and bring in newer customer segments who might not be traditional credit card customers. It’s a win-win for both merchants and their customers,” said Chayan Hazra, head of Payment Business (APAC) of Pine Labs.

“We’re excited to partner Atome, a well-known player in this space. Together, we aim to delight merchants in Malaysia and help them drive business growth through BNPL payment acceptance processed via Pine Labs merchants payment technology,” he added.

“The movement control order (MCO) has placed a huge strain on Malaysia’s retail sector and this partnership will support and drive recovery in retail sales while empowering consumers to shop and pay flexibly, safely, and responsibly,” said Trasy Lou-Walsh, general manager for Atome Singapore and Malaysia.