Allianz, Santander and Two join forces to launch a BNPL offer dedicated to large accounts

After merchants and small businesses, large companies are this time the target of the new fractional payment offer created by the credit insurance subsidiary of the German insurer Allianz, the Spanish bank Santander and the Norwegian fintech Two.

FACTS

• The three companies have signed a global partnership to create a fractional payment solution that helps expand online business to business for large companies operating in multiple countries.

• Businesses will be able to spread out their payments, while the multinational will be able to collect immediately without having to worry about non-payment. Sellers will also benefit from multi-currency support on a global scale.

• Distribution of roles:

  • Allianz Trade instantly evaluates loan requests via its API, using a vast and detailed database containing commercial, financial and strategic information on over 80 million companies worldwide.

  • This allows Santander CIB to make an instant decision on whether to grant funding.

  • The entire payment process is optimised and configured with BNPL technology from startup Two.

CHALLENGES

• A shift from BNPL players to BtoB: While BNPL players such as Klarna initially rushed to the consumer market, more and more of them are interested in the BtoB segment, estimated at $700 billion according to Bloomberg. The amounts are much higher and BtoB e-commerce is estimated to be 6 times larger than e-commerce aimed at individuals.

• Expanding payment options:  In the BtoB world today, to pay on the Internet, professionals have only one means of payment, the credit card. The solution devised by Santander and Allianz offers companies an alternative to these manual operations and also allows companies to maintain their payment habits (within 30 to 60 days of issuing invoices) in an environment where e-commerce is an essential differentiating factor for sellers.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Allianz Trade had developed national partnerships in France, with Pledg, Italy, Germany and the UK and with Two already last year to offer a dedicated BNPL solution for SMEs in the UK.

• The new BtoB deferred payment solution allows Santander to cover the full range of BNPL products in addition to Zinia, Santander's BtoC (Digital Consumer Bank) deferred payment solution which has been successfully deployed in Germany and the Netherlands over the past year.