Walmart is going deeper into FinTech & bringing BNPL product in-house 👀; RIP Marcus? Goldman Sachs’ FinTech ambitions are fading 🪦; Microsoft & London Stock Exchange — a marriage made in Heaven? 🤔

FinTech is Eating the World, 14 December

Hey Everyone,

Happy Wednesday! Today’s issue is super hot and heavily focused on FinTech. We’re looking at Walmart which is going deeper into FinTech & bringing BNPL product in-house (why it makes sense + the Walmart Bank play), Goldman Sachs and their fading FinTech ambitions (RIP Marcus? & FinTech is hard, folks), and Microsoft & London Stock Exchange deal, which seems like a marriage made in Heaven (where’s the value?). Let’s just jump straight into the good stuff:

Walmart is going deeper into FinTech and bringing BNPL product in-house 👀

The news 🗞 Global retailer Walmart WMT 0.00%↑ is gearing up to launch a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) system that would be offered through its own FinTech venture.

More on this 👉 For the context, we must remember that Walmart is already offering BNPL services both online and in stores through Affirm AFRM 0.00%↑, allowing customers to pay for their products in instalments over several months. It now seems that they might be ditching Affirm and hence will offer BNPL through its majority-owned FinTech venture, ONE, people familiar with the matter told The Information.

The BNPL product will join Walmart’s other payments products, like Walmart Pay, which is the retailer’s proprietary mobile wallet.

What’s the catch? 🤔 When you think about it, this move makes a ton of sense for Walmart. First, it wants to capture a bigger share of the US BNPL market. But more importantly, it ties in very nicely with their long-term vision - the Walmart Bank 🏦

Here’s more on that + the takeaway: