Compass, the Mediobanca Group’s consumer credit arm, has completed two deals in the Buy  Now Pay Later (BNPL) segment. The rationale for the deals is to accelerate the bank’s growth in the deferred payment business using digital channels, which it has entered successfully with the launch of its PagoLight product.

With the two deals, Compass has acquired:

• A 19.5% stake in HeidiPay, a fintech company based in Switzerland, and specialized in the development of digital platforms to support BNPL in the e-commerce segment. In  operation since 2021, the company has developed agreements with important  distributors and luxury brands, and today has one of the most important plug-ins in the  market, which can already be activated for multi-country product offerings;

• 100% of Soisy, an Italian fintech operator with strong expertise in granting special purpose loans for the purchase of goods and services using e-commerce platforms,  with a portfolio of active partners. Founded in 2017, the company has developed agreements with 800 e-tailers, has more than 70,000 clients, and posts new loans per annum of €50m.

Using its proven risk assessment capacity and the two acquisitions, Compass will be able to pursue its expansion strategy in the BNPL category for sums and terms characteristic of consumer lending. The company will be able to cross-sell Compass items to a younger target market that is more likely to make online purchases as a result of the expansion and diversification of its client base.

Compass will be able to launch geographical diversification with both domestic and international coverage thanks to the HeidiPay transaction. All of this will be made possible by Compass’s comprehensive credit evaluation capabilities, which have always been a strength of the company.

“The two deals have a strong strategic and business rationale as far as we are concerned,  consistent with the innovation process launched at Group level”,

“The synergies we will generate from our acquisition of these two companies will give us access to new expertise and next-generation technology assets, an important value option in a segment such as deferred payments which is changing at such a  fast pace. Leveraging these acquisitions will also act as a driver to obtain new clients, not just in Italy but also elsewhere”, 

Alberto Nagel, Chief  Executive Officer of Mediobanca.

Compass will be able to use its fully digital BNPL solutions, which can be linked to e-commerce websites, in connection with these two acquisitions, which will improve the PagoLight offering even more. The PagoLight service, which was first introduced in 2021 and was initially only available for physical businesses, has now been activated with more than 7,000 actual points of sale (POS) systems and about 40 e-commerce platforms thanks to the patented BNPL solution built by Compass.

“Buy Now Pay Later is now an established trend”,

“Compass is so far the only bank in Italy to seize the opportunities offered by this business and create its own interest-free deferred payment solution with PagoLight: it’s a business which dovetails perfectly with consumer credit, innovative and with excellent potential to support growth. BNPL also allows a bank such as Compass to strengthen our presence in e-commerce,  with a focus on certain categories of products and targets in particular, such as younger and digitally-literate clients, which historically have received less coverage from consumer credit”,  Sichel concluded.

Gian Luca Sichel, Compass CEO.

The improvement of Pagolight operations led to the granting of about €70 million in BNPL financing in FY 2021–2022; this trend has continued to rise even after the summer. By the conclusion of FY 2022–23, Compass’s capacity to add new clients through BNPL is anticipated to have quadrupled (from 5,000 to 20,000 new clients per month).

The transaction has no effect on the Core Tier 1 ratio for the Mediobanca Group.