Global Markets Daily Is Point of Sale Lending a Consumer Leverage Blind Spot

Economics Research 19 August 2026 | 3:04AM MDT

Global Markets Daily: Is Point-of-Sale Lending a Consumer Leverage Blind Spot?

n “Point-of-sale” lending, often used interchangeably with “buy now pay later” Ben Shumway | lending, has rapidly expanded over the last several years. Fintech platforms use Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC algorithms and alternative data to instantly underwrite checkout loans across various loan structures. While limited reporting to credit bureaus makes the market hard to size, some of the larger point-of-sale financing firms are publicly traded and disclose gross merchandise volume ranging from tens of billions, to over a hundred billion dollars a year. n Borrowers skew younger and lower-income, raising consumer health concerns. These users have the highest missed-payment rates, and lower-income borrowers often cite point-of-sale financing as their only way to afford a purchase. While most spending is discretionary (clothing, electronics), 20% of borrowers report financing groceries or food deliveries, and 8% of borrowers report financing medical expenses (including veterinary). Roughly a third carry simultaneous “stacked” loans across multiple point-of-sale lenders, and missed-payment rates are rising. n Point-of-sale ABS offers an attractive but nuanced opportunity amid broader caution. The small (~$5 billion), newer point-of-sale ABS market, with strong D90+ rates of just 70bp, offers wider spreads than structurally similar credit card ABS, making it appealing at higher-rated tranches; however, the aggregate signals reinforce concern about lower-income consumer health as OBBBA tax-refund tailwinds fade and real income growth stays weak for the bottom quintile.

Is Point-of-Sale Lending a Consumer Leverage Blind Spot?

With a slew of consumer facing companies reporting earnings this week, the financial health of the consumer remains ever in the spotlight. One of the newest trends in consumer credit is the rise of “point-of-sale” lending (often used interchangeably with “buy now pay later” or BNPL lending). In short, point-of-sale lending constitutes loans that are offered to a consumer while they are in the checkout process of a purchase, and are approved in real time. In today’s Global Markets Daily we explore the structure of the lending product, the typical borrower profile, why borrowers might use point-of-sale or BNPL financing, the signals surrounding consumer financial health that can be derived from these loans, and the downstream impact of point-of-sale lending on securitization markets.

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Goldman Sachs Global Markets Daily

Point-of-sale lending is a relatively new innovation, only gaining popularity within the last several years, championed by fintech platforms. The loans themselves are offered during the checkout process to a consumer, and are required to be decisioned near instantaneously. The fintech platforms offering point-of-sale loans often make use of complex algorithms and alternative data, in an attempt to more effectively underwrite a broader pool of customers than traditional lending products may be able to service. These loans typically follow one of three predominant structures: loans that forgo both interest and late fees, an interest free structure with late fees, or a simple interest bearing loan. Across all types of loans it is common for point-of-sale or BNPL financing companies to receive a percentage of sales financed through their platforms.

One of the major challenges of evaluating trends in the point-of-sale industry is that lenders in the space have largely not reported loans to the credit bureaus, stating that they feel frequent short term borrowing would be penalized in traditional credit scoring models. As such, pinning down the exact size of the market is difficult, and estimates vary significantly. That said, some of the best known point-of-sale lending platforms are publicly traded, and report some details on their transaction volumes, which shed some light on the scale of financing…