Plend Launches Embedded Credit API as an Ethical Alternative to Buy Now Pay Later

Plend, the first dedicated B Corp personal lender in the UK has launched ‘powered by Plend®’, an embedded credit API that enables partner organisations to offer affordable and sustainable credit directly to their own users.

Plend’s mission is to broaden access to credit for the 20 million+ adults in the UK who are held back by outdated credit scores and infrastructure. The ‘powered by Plend®’ API marks a significant technological leap forward, enabling organisations, customer-facing platforms, and institutions to embed affordable and longer-term credit options within their existing user journeys.

The key features of ‘powered by Plend®’ include:

• Embedded Credit API: enables affordable and longer-term credit to be seamlessly integrated into a third-party customer journey or at point-of-sale. Plend provides the full onboarding, regulatory, payments and funding needed for the customer journey.
• Automated and Comprehensive: the ‘powered by Plend®’ API simultaneously runs a fully automated KYC, fraud and credit assessment in less than 10 seconds, enabling high-quality customer experiences as well as higher acceptance rates.
• Customer Outcomes: Plend provides high-quality customer care, along with ethical wrap-around support to ensure that customer outcomes are both sustainable and responsible.

“powered by Plend® is the next evolution in our mission to expand access to fair and affordable credit,” said Robert Pasco, Co-founder & CEO of Plend. “We now empower businesses to support their users with an affordable and longer-term alternative to BNPL, directly within their platform or app journey. With Plend, our partners know their customers are receiving the highest quality support and outcomes from a B Corp Certified ethical provider, benefitting both their customers and the wider community.”

Plend’s utilises a proprietary credit risk engine, The PLEND Score®, to address inherent flaws in the traditional credit system. Currently over 20 million adults in the UK struggle to access affordable credit due to inaccurate or invisible traditional credit files. The PLEND Score® leverages customer-verified data from open banking to assess their real spending habits and affordability, providing a more inclusive alternative.

“How people use credit is changing rapidly; the jump in BNPL usage is an example of changing customer habits for point-of-sale financing” added Pasco. “It’s important that customers have ethical alternatives available for more complex life events, and with the powered by Plend® API, we can ensure that businesses will be able to positively impact their communities, fostering inclusivity while still driving growth.”

Plend is now expanding its partnership model via ‘powered by Plend®’. If your organisation is looking to embed longer-term, ethical credit into your user journey, please visit https://www.plend.com/powered-by-plend or email
partnerships@plend.co.uk