LOTTE Finance and OpenWay Introduce New BNPL Service to Vietnam

19 October 2021, Hanoi

LOTTE Finance Vietnam, a subsidiary of LOTTE Card, one of the leading credit card companies in South Korea, has launched a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) service to enhance the online shopping experience of Vietnamese consumers. Called PayLater by LOTTE Finance, it is one of the first BNPL solutions in the Vietnamese market and is based on the Way4 digital payments software from OpenWay.

As a leading provider of consumer finance solutions in South Korea, LOTTE Card is among the first companies to implement a BNPL solution in the fast-growing Vietnamese market. Globally, BNPL spend in retail e-commerce is projected to grow to more than US $1,2 trillion by 2024 with a 25% compound annual growth rate, according to Aite-Novarica.

PayLater by LOTTE Finance is a new concept of consumer finance service that allows customers to make transactions on a Buy Now, Pay Later basis. Within the service, LOTTE Finance grants each customer a personal credit limit. Customers can pay for goods and services on LOTTE Finance’s partner e-commerce platforms within this limit, even if they do not have funds in their bank account or cash in their pockets to pay immediately in full. The first merchant in Vietnam to offer PayLater is the flight and hotel booking provider Vntrip.vn, with one of the largest e-commerce marketplaces in Vietnam to follow suit.

Customers can quickly and easily apply for a PayLater credit limit with only an identity card. After their application is approved, they can use the service for three years to shop online before having to verify their identity again.

When making a transaction, customers can make payment in full with their approved credit limit without incurring any interest. Alternatively, they can choose to pay in instalments and divide the transaction value into several smaller payments over a period to reduce the financial burden.

LOTTE Finance uses the Way4 payment system for the BNPL solution logic, including instalment management, end-to-end transaction processing, interest calculation, and real-time integration with 3rd party systems for digital identity, scoring, and contract processing. The new solution extends LOTTE Finance’s credit card business, recently launched on the Way4 digital payment platform.

“It was important for us to find a technological solution that would allow us to implement LOTTE Finance’s best practices in developing lifestyle financial services while taking into account the requirements of large online retailers in Vietnam for a seamless checkout experience. The Way4 platform satisfied all our requirements for solution design and our available use cases,” comments Mr. Kim Jong Geuk, CEO of LOTTE Finance on the service launch.

“BNPL projects have skyrocketed recently due to the pandemic and the global growth in digital payments adoption. OpenWay has implemented such projects in Asia, Europe and other regions. This geographical diversity, as well as the in-built flexibility of the Way4 platform, helped us realize different visions of BNPL for our clients,” notes Mr. Nguyen Manh Ha, General Director, OpenWay Vietnam.

About LOTTE Finance

LOTTE Finance, headquartered in Hanoi with two other offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, is a subsidiary of LOTTE Card (Republic of Korea) — one of South Korea’s top providers of credit finance services that combines services with fintech.

2017 marked the expansion of LOTTE Group investment and break into the finance sector in Vietnam when LOTTE Card signed a stock purchase agreement acquiring a 100% stake from the subsidiary from one of Vietnam's major banks. The company’s business license under the name of LOTTE Finance Vietnam Co., ltd (LOTTE Finance) was approved by State Bank of Vietnam in September 2018, listing LOTTE Card as the first South Korean credit card company licensed to operate in Vietnam.

LOTTE Finance offers full-fledged financial services in Vietnam based on South Korea’s advanced financial services and credit management technology, fintech and big data. The company's ultimate goal is to become the leading financial services company in Vietnam, developing lifestyle financial services that help to maximize the values for our customers and optimize the consumer-friendly infrastructure of LOTTE.

The company now has more than 16 service introduction points (SIPs) in 14 cities and provinces with nearly 800 staff members in its three offices. LOTTE Finance’s main services include cash loan, durable loan and credit card, and most recently, the PayLater service.