Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 92% certainty 5/5 debate potential 3/5

BNPL Network Take Rates Fall Far Below 3% to 5%

Medad Sharon · He's Processing $100m+ in GMV Run Rate Connecting Lenders like Affirm with Consumer Brands like Lenovo · May 23, 2022 · at 20:02

Medad Sharon, CEO of ChargeAfter, refutes Nathan Latka's assumption that point-of-sale financing platforms retain 3% to 5% in gross margin per dollar processed.

0:00 / 0:52exact quote · 52.6s

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“No, it's certainly not three to five percent, right? ... It's much less, right? If you look on the payment space, right? When a merchant is typically paying in the U S somewhere between 1.6 to A critical transaction, right? This cost would include the issuing cost, the cost of the card for the issuer. It would include the network costs, Visa or Mastercard, and then it would include the margin of the distributor, the acquiring bank, the gateway, right? All those three players in the ecosystem and would benefit out of this total cost. In our case, in our industry, it is very similar, right? Instead of the issuers, we have the lenders. Instead of the acquires, the distributors might be the same companies. And then we are, we have the network in the middle.”

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The claim, plainly

Point-of-sale financing and BNPL network take-rate margins are far below 3% to 5% of GMV because overall processing fees must be divided among lenders, distributors, and network platforms.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

On May 23, 2022, Medad Sharon, then-CEO (and CEO as of August 2026) of ChargeAfter, stated that point-of-sale financing and BNPL network take-rate margins are far below 3% to 5% of GMV because aggregate merchant processing fees must be divided among lenders, payment rails/networks, and distribution/orchestration platforms. Industry and regulatory data corroborate this assertion. While gross merchant discount rates (MDR) charged to retailers typically range from 3% to 6%, regulatory disclosures from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published in September 2022 found that net unit margins for major BNPL providers were 1.01% of GMV in 2021 (down from 1.27% in 2020). Multi-lender orchestration and gateway networks that do not hold balance-sheet credit capture even smaller net cuts (typically well below 1% to 2% of GMV) after interchange, issuer processing, and lender risk margins are deducted.

CFPB September 2022 Market Report ('Buy Now, Pay Later: Market trends and consumer impacts') found BNPL net unit margins were 1.01% of GMV in 2021 and 1.27% of GMV in 2020.
Gross merchant discount rates (3%–6%) are split among balance-sheet lenders, card networks/processors, and software orchestration platforms, leaving net platform take rates significantly below the 3%–5% headline merchant fee range.

Checked against

[1] rfp.wiki [2] getlatka.com [3] consumerfinance.gov [4] consumerfinancialserviceslawmonitor.com [5] richmondfed.org [6] justpricing.com [7] lumosbusiness.com [8] chargeflow.io

"merchant discount" OR "merchant fee" "CFPB" "Buy Now, Pay Later: Market Trends and Consumer Impacts" "percent" OR "%" "ChargeAfter" "take rate" OR "margin" OR "processing fee" BNPL merchant discount rate take rate GMV CFPB report 2022 2023 "take rate" BNPL "CFPB" 2022 OR 2023 "merchant discount fee" "GMV" "CFPB" "September 2022" point of sale financing network platform take rate GMV Affirm Klarna

assessed as of 2026-09-02

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

ChargeAfter Mastercard Visa

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More from Medad Sharon

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Most BNPL Lenders Approve Only 30% of Applicants

“Each lender is also focusing on specific credit segment. It might be prime, near prime or subprime, which means that they will approve only 30% of the consumers, or in other words, decline 70% of the consumers.”

Medad Sharon May 23, 2022 ▶ 4:08 He's Processing $100m+ in GMV Run Rate Connecting Lenders like Affirm with Consumer Brands like Lenovo

Assertion Partly supported

Affirm's US Credit Box Excludes Subprime and Revolving Lines

“Because a firm, as an example, they're a great lender. Really, they're a great company, but they have a very specific product to a very specific credit box in a, in, in, in, in the US, right? They don't cover other countries. They don't cover near prime or sub…”

Medad Sharon May 23, 2022 ▶ 5:07 He's Processing $100m+ in GMV Run Rate Connecting Lenders like Affirm with Consumer Brands like Lenovo

Assertion Not checkable as stated

ChargeAfter Hits Hundreds of Millions in GMV Run Rate

“It's not all times. It's not all times. It's the current volume, the current run rate that we have.”

Medad Sharon May 23, 2022 ▶ 7:54 He's Processing $100m+ in GMV Run Rate Connecting Lenders like Affirm with Consumer Brands like Lenovo

Assertion Supported

Affirm Refuses to Partner with ChargeAfter's Lending Network

“And by the way, the firm is not working with us in Lenovo or elsewhere, but it's more about the ability to add more players that are believing in charge after vision and in charge after marketplace.”

Medad Sharon May 23, 2022 ▶ 17:41 He's Processing $100m+ in GMV Run Rate Connecting Lenders like Affirm with Consumer Brands like Lenovo

Insight

ChargeAfter Replicates Visa's Network Model for BNPL Financing

“But in general, our model is similar. We are doing the same thing that visa did in the payment space in the BNPL point of self financing space.”

Medad Sharon May 23, 2022 ▶ 19:10 He's Processing $100m+ in GMV Run Rate Connecting Lenders like Affirm with Consumer Brands like Lenovo

Disclosure

ChargeAfter Powers Lenovo's Point-of-Sale Financing

“We are working with Lenovo as an example. If you go to Lenovo website, you will see Lenovo financing is powered by charge after, and we are allowing them to offer this to their consumers.”

Medad Sharon May 23, 2022 ▶ 2:57 He's Processing $100m+ in GMV Run Rate Connecting Lenders like Affirm with Consumer Brands like Lenovo

BNPL Network Take Rates Fall Far Below 3% to 5%

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