Dutch government seeks to stop BNPL hitting the high street

This is a typical example of government overreach - the Dutch government has no evidence for its concerns as BNPL is not available in physcial stores. Citing "vulnerable groups" is a classic catch-all used to justify anything. If it was genuinely concerned it would wait to review the usage after 12 months and take any action as necessary if issues become apparent.

It suggest the government has other motives - for example, it may want to avoid a new innovative and popular solution competing with the digital euro which the bureaucrats are pushing.

BNPL has been in physical stores for many years, called store credit or in some markets due to regulation, instalment purchases, whereby the store gives the credit. Nowdays financial companies normally carry the old store credit and give the store a kick-back from their earnings of interest and commission fees. The thing here is that Adyen and Klarna push the credit to the customer through the payment terminal set-up and Klarna is building a register of customers already approved for credit with them in order to make the credit access "one-click". So three parties need to share on the spoils collected from the customers: Klarna, Adyen and the merchant that allows them to push credit to its customers. All this comes at a price paid for by the consumers and part of the price is the customer data usable for various other pruposes than processing the purchase payment. Better way to regulate is to demand a complete credit check for each customer and a renewed check that any new purchases still are within the customer´s credit capability together with a nation Dutch credit register compulsory to all lenders. In addition rule on that if not adhered to these rules, lenders cannot collect from the customer who does not pay back on time. Furthermore, a prohibition to sell the non-performing loans to collection agencies without the written consent by each non-performing customer. This in addition with regulatory rules on absolute credit ceiling for customers taking into account their income status. All this exists in Norway already and is on its way in Sweden as well so the Dutch government can curb the unsecure lending expansion to people who barely can afford a credit by reading the Norwegian regulations that arrived in 2019. An EU regulation already puts a ceiling on financial institution non-performing loans which means that lenders must write off against equity the bad loans when they reach that ceiling since they cannot sell them to collection agencies any more - or stop handing out loans to customers who do not pay back in full. So dear Dutch government, the tool-box is available to curb the BNPL fiesta.