Stefanie Yuen Thio was quoted in The Edge: “Buy now, regulate later? Are ‘buy now, pay later’ services good for cash-strapped consumers?”

On 30 April 2021, TSMP Law Corporation joint managing partner Stefanie Yuen Thio commented in an article published by the Edge on a new type of Fintech-led instalment payment services that target shoppers on their everyday discretionary purchases. She commented on the regulatory aspects of the development and warns of consumers overstretching themselves.

“I think any company that lends money, irrespective of the structure, should be subject to regulation. Otherwise the potential for a wide-scale default is very real” she said.

She also cautioned that “FinTechs, if unregulated, will be tempted to build business by lending freely, especially as money is so cheap in today’s low interest rate environment. This may cause them to be more lax with their credit control process, which could result in a serious insolvency bubble”.

Consumers also have a responsibility to be prudent, she said, and should bear in mind the impact on their credit scores. “For customers, easy money today which, if they cannot repay, will mean a mark against their names when they try to borrow money later. In today’s interconnected world, your digital past sticks with you. With more FinTech platforms using our spending patterns for their evaluations, consumers may not know the far-reaching impact of their financial actions today.”