"Klarna’s net loss more than doubled in the first quarter as more consumers failed to repay loans from the Swedish “buy now, pay later” lender as concerns rose about the financial health of US consumers.
The fintech, which offers interest-free consumer loans to allow customers to make retail purchases, on Monday reported a net loss of $99mn for the three months to March, up from $47mn a year earlier.
The company, which makes money by charging fees to merchants and to consumers who fail to repay on time, said its customer credit losses had risen to $136mn, a 17 per cent year-on-year increase.
The increased failure to repay comes on the back of gloomy economic sentiment in the US, where a closely watched measure of consumers’ confidence last week fell to its second-lowest level on record. US President Donald Trump’s trade war has driven expectations of higher inflation.
Klarna’s results come weeks after the Swedish group was forced to pause its plan for a long-awaited stock market listing in New York as Trump’s sweeping tariffs announcements upended markets."
https://www.ft.com/content/6c4bf393-c80b-42b7-993a-35270143f688