Zip Co., one of Australia’s largest “buy now, pay later” companies, said it is mulling a move to offer stock and cryptocurrency trading.
Peter Gray, the co-founder of the company, told The Wall Street Journal that they are looking to present trading services by their native app in an attempt to have a more engaging relationship with their young customers.
The timeline at which the offering would be available or if stocks would come first before cryptocurrency was not specified, but Gray said that Zip would first offer the services to the U.S. QuadPay unit, which has 3.8 million customers.
The U.S. to be more advanced than Australia
As for this new offering from the company, it would seem that they are looking to give the U.S. a good head start.
When he spoke to Dow Jones Newswires, Gray said that they are eager to move towards this feat, and America might be further advanced than Australia.
The co-founder also said that the plans of his company were more likely to be related to crypto or the ability to buy and sell shares from the app rather than the ability to have a savings account with no coupon.
Next-gen layaway offers
In Australia, “buy now, pay later” schemes are extremely popular and are viewed to be the next generation layaway offers of shopping retailers and outlet stores.
Basically, under the scheme, consumers are given the ability to bring home a product or enjoy a service while being given the option for payment at a later time, on a set period, with minimal interest.
Keeping this in mind, Gray said that their plan to introduce options for cryptocurrency and stock offerings would use their existing infrastructure and logistics. They will also partner with existing platforms and get specialist businesses.
Image courtesy of ASX Investor/YouTube Screenshot