"We saw our volumes increase during that period just reflecting the increase in digital transactions generally," Luke Griffiths, Klarna's vice president, told BBC Radio 5 Live's Wake Up To Money. However, as sales increased but more shoppers faced the financial uncertainty of lockdown, the company did tighten its rules on lending. "Obviously with people's financial circumstances changing during this period, we have constantly reviewed our policies around the type of customer that we accept," Mr Griffiths said. As a result, he does not believe Klarna will see an increase in defaults, despite rising levels of financial hardship "[Klarna's] default rate is less than 1% and we are working super hard to make sure that we are only accepting customers that can pay over time. If anything, it will be at the front end that we are rejecting consumers because we don't feel they will be able to pay, rather than on the back end which is customers who are unable to pay." Klarna used by eight million customers in the UK alone and is often displayed as a payment option across the websites of its many retail partners. The main other players identified by BBC in this growing market are ClearPay and Laybuy.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53465978