BPCE deploys Oney's fragmented payments to its business customers

BPCE has announced the strengthening of synergies between the Banques Populaires, the Caisses d'Epargne and its subsidiary Oney, a specialist in fragmented payments. What's on the agenda? A new service launched in France specifically for the group's professional customers, craftsmen and companies.

THE FACTS

• All BPCE's professional and business customers will be able to accept payments in installments using Oney's services.

• The Banques Populaires and the Caisses d'Epargne are thus offering their professional customers a new means of accepting payments in instalments of 3 or 4 times.

• The main characteristics of the offer dedicated to professionals have been adapted to the particular needs of this new target. They are based on :

  • real-time file acceptance,

  • an online tool to manage the commercial activity,

  • an immediate response for the acceptance of payments in installments,

  • purchase acceptance thresholds set between 100 and 3,000 euros,

  • wide acceptance of Visa and MasterCard bank cards.

• The price of this new service is presented as competitive and without subscription.

CHALLENGES

• Going beyond merchant partnerships: For fractional payment players, merchants have until now been partners capable of integrating their payment solution to enable end consumers to pay for their purchases in installments. But Oney is working to go beyond this model. Last June, the BPCE group subsidiary launched a universal split payment solution. It allowed its end-users to apply their split payment offer at any merchant in France and abroad.

• Getting a head start: Today, professionals and companies are becoming the relays of Oney's service, by accepting fractional payments from their end customers. This strategy is a win-win situation for all parties:

  • Oney further expands its distribution capacity beyond its partner merchants

  • BPCE's professional and corporate customers gain a new payment acceptance tool that is advantageous for their customers

  • end customers can spread out their purchases without any fees.

• BPCE also emphasizes its ambition to support the economic recovery in the context of the post-Covid recovery.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• More than 5 million French people already use Oney's fractional payments every year.

• BPCE showed great interest in Oney in 2019. At the time, the mutualist group entered into exclusive negotiations with Auchan Holding with a view to acquiring a majority stake in the financial services specialist, which has since become its own subsidiary.

• Since then, Oney has been trying to establish itself as a French reference for fractional payments, a rapidly expanding market that is all the more interesting for traditional banking players.

• Although FinTechs dominate the market in Europe, traditional banks have also reacted. Faced with BPCE and Oney, BNP Paribas has positioned itself by acquiring Floa from the Casino group and Crédit Mutuel.