Klarna boss slams rivals over ‘unsustainable’ models

The commissions buy now, pay later ventures such as Afterpay charge merchants are unsustainable, according to Klarna Chief Executive Sebastian Siemiatkowski.

He made the comment as the Swedish FinTech officially launched in Australia and bagged a further $200 million investment from Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). 

Klarna takes a margin of 2.2% from merchants to provide its buy now, pay later service. The likes of Afterpay charge as much as 5%. "We don’t think that is a long term sustainable level, we think they (Afterpay) will drop to the same levels we operate at," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

 “We don’t typically comment on what executives at other companies say,” an Afterpay spokesperson told RTIH. The company recently announced that its offering would be available on eBay Australia this year in what was described as its largest online deal in the country. Further details here.

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