Mastercard, Pine Labs expand ‘pay later' installment solution

The expansion will be available to five Southeast Asian markets in 2021.

Singapore will be one of the five Southeast Asian markets where Mastercard and merchant commerce platform Pine Labs will offer consumers the zero-interest instalments on purchases.

The expanded payment solution will be rolled out first in Thailand and Philippines in February to be followed by Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore.

The expansion adds to their existing “pay later” partnership in India and Malaysia that started in early 2020.

Card-linked instalments are common on credit cards across Southeast Asia but the Mastercard and Pine Labs solution is much broader by enabling instalments via credit cards, debit cards and bank accounts across in-store and online merchants, according to Pine Labs.

“The ‘pay later’ option gives consumers the flexibility to manage their cash flow better by offering them the choice to pay in instalments at the point of sale. For merchants, being able to offer instalments at checkout directly influences consumer buying behavior that leads to an increase in the average ticket size, reduces cart abandonment and results in higher sales,” said Sandeep Malhotra, Mastercard executive vice president of products & innovation in Asia Pacific.