On December 10, the CFPB released a report on the buy now, pay later (BNPL) market, leveraging trends and findings from 2019 through 2023. The report found that the BNPL industry continued to expand as a financing option: The number of BNPL loans issued by surveyed lenders rose 23 percent from 2022 to 2023, while the total dollar amount of originations increased by 26 percent when adjusted for inflation. Additionally, the number of consumers using BNPL grew to 53.6 million in 2023, a 12 percent increase from the previous year, with BNPL users averaging 6.3 loans per lender, up 11 percent from 2022.

The report also highlighted consumers took on larger total annual loan amounts and BNPL app usage showed “sharp increases in purchasing volume” around the holiday season. From 2021-2023, the CFPB highlighted that late fees and charge-off rates both declined, with 1.83 percent of loans deemed uncollectible in 2023 compared to 2.63 percent the prior year.