White-label BNPL platform for banks
Deploy a retail credit product you don't have to build
You have the licence. You have the capital. What you may not have is a retail consumer product that can be underwritten at scale in a market with thin credit data — and the technology to run it.
7Later supplies both. You lend; we run the machinery.
- Your own licence and brand
- Revenue share, per market
- Weeks, not quarters
Who this is for
Built for licensed lenders with capital to deploy
The partnership works best with institutions that recognise themselves in most of this:
- A licensed lender — bank, microfinance institution or microfinance bank, consumer finance company, savings and loans company, SACCO, credit union or NBFC
- Capital available for retail deployment, with limited retail product to deploy it into
- No in-house capacity to build and maintain a consumer lending platform
- Existing relationships with corporate clients whose payroll you already handle, which convert into employer partners faster than anything else
- Or, alternatively, a mandate to grow low-cost retail deposits — in which case salary domiciliation is your entry point rather than payroll deduction
- Regulatory headroom in your licence category for the pricing the product requires
If you bank the employers, you already hold the distribution channel. The product is the missing piece.
Three configurations, one platform
The same platform supports three ways of securing the loan, and partners commonly run more than one. Which you start with depends on what you already have rather than on which is theoretically strongest.
Salary domiciliation
- If your situation is
- You want retail deposit growth, you have no employer relationships to lean on, or employer negotiation would delay launch by quarters
Payroll deduction
- If your situation is
- Your corporate banking book already contains the employers, and they will run a deduction file but not sign a guarantee
Employer guarantee
- If your situation is
- You have large institutional employers with a staff welfare mandate and legal departments willing to sign
Salary domiciliation lending
The domiciliation case, specifically
Salary domiciliation is usually mis-read as the weakest of the three because its security is lightest. For a bank it is often the most valuable, because it is not primarily a credit programme.
Payroll account acquisition
Every borrower under this configuration opens a salary account and directs their pay to it. That is payroll account acquisition — the cheapest and stickiest source of current-account funding a retail bank has, and something most banks spend heavily to win from competitors. The lending product pays for the acquisition rather than the other way round.
Fastest to launch
It is also the fastest configuration to launch, because no employer has to agree to anything, and the cleanest in jurisdictions whose rules restrict third-party handling of loan funds: the money never leaves the bank.
How responsibilities divide
Licence and regulatory standing
- You (the licensed lender)
- Yes
- 7Later
- No
Capital and balance sheet
- You (the licensed lender)
- Yes
- 7Later
- No
Credit decision and policy
- You (the licensed lender)
- Yes
- 7Later
- Engine and tooling to execute it
Customer of record
- You (the licensed lender)
- Yes
- 7Later
- No
Platform, ledger, settlement
- You (the licensed lender)
- —
- 7Later
- Yes
Product design and credit logic
- You (the licensed lender)
- Joint
- 7Later
- Yes
Employer and merchant onboarding tooling
- You (the licensed lender)
- —
- 7Later
- Yes
Payroll and account reconciliation
- You (the licensed lender)
- —
- 7Later
- Yes
Borrower-facing channels
- You (the licensed lender)
- —
- 7Later
- Yes
Regulatory reporting
- You (the licensed lender)
- Filed by you
- 7Later
- Data produced by the platform
Operating procedures and staff training
- You (the licensed lender)
- Joint
- 7Later
- Yes
7Later is never a party to the credit agreement, never accesses your core banking systems beyond the agreed integration perimeter, and never has control over credit funds. This separation is deliberate: it is what makes the model presentable to a regulator, and it is the first thing a supervisor asks about.
We also take no position in the loan. No co-lending, no first-loss guarantee, no share of credit losses. Our revenue comes from the platform relationship, which keeps our incentives on volume and reliability rather than on risk-taking.
Why the portfolio behaves differently
-
Underwriting shifts from the individual
Under a guarantee you perform one corporate assessment and reach an entire workforce. Under domiciliation you underwrite an observed salary inflow rather than a bureau file. Either way you are not scoring thousands of thin records.
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Collection is structural, not behavioural
Repayment is intercepted before the borrower's discretionary spending — inside payroll, or at the account on the day the salary lands. The most expensive part of consumer lending, chasing money, largely disappears, and with it the cost base that forces lenders to price retail credit punitively.
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Exposure is bounded on three axes
A cap as a share of net pay, a cap set by the legally assignable portion of wages in the jurisdiction, and short tenors. A short-tenor book self-liquidates: capital turns several times a year, which raises return on deployed capital without raising the rate charged.
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Usage is targeted
Credit is issued as spending capacity into a defined merchant and utility network rather than as cash, anchoring the portfolio in essential consumption.
Consumer credit interest rate ceiling compliance
Pricing and regulatory fit
Consumer credit pricing in most of our target markets is capped — an all-in usury ceiling, an APR cap, or a total-cost-of-credit rule. These ceilings vary sharply by licence category: the same product priced legally by a microfinance institution can be unlawful for a commercial bank in the same country.
7Later's pricing engine is configured per market and per licence category, with all borrower-side charges modelled inside the all-in cost of credit rather than presented alongside it. We have taken this analysis through a central bank review process and treat it as a design constraint from day one, not a legal question to resolve after launch.
BNPL partnership for licensed lenders
Where 7Later works
We are not tied to a region. We are tied to a set of conditions — and where those conditions hold, the model works.
-
A formal payroll base
Employers with several hundred staff or more, paying salaries on a regular, documented cycle. Payroll is the collateral; without it there is no product.
-
A real credit gap
Consumer credit penetration is low and credit bureau coverage is thin, so an employer guarantee or an observed salary inflow adds something a credit score cannot.
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Pricing headroom
The local ceiling on the total cost of credit leaves room for the product to pay for itself under your licence category. Ceilings differ by licence, so this is assessed per partner, not per country.
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Licensed lenders looking for retail product
Institutions with capital to deploy and no consumer product to deploy it into.
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A phone-first population
Employees transact through a messenger or mobile web rather than a downloaded app.
Our current focus
We also work with partners outside these regions where the conditions above are met.
Does your market qualify?
Rather than guess, send us four facts and we will tell you within a week whether the model is viable where you are.
If the numbers do not work, we will say so. We would rather lose a lead than lose a year.
Send us the four facts- Your licence category and its applicable cost-of-credit ceiling
- The legally assignable share of net wages in your jurisdiction
- Typical payroll cycle and payment method for large employers
- Dominant consumer messaging and payment channels
Commercial model
Partnerships are structured as revenue share, agreed per market. There is no capital contribution required from us and none expected from you beyond your lending book. Exact terms depend on market, volume commitment, exclusivity and the division of local operating responsibility.
We do not publish rate cards, because a product priced against a local cost-of-credit ceiling and a local cost of funds cannot be priced on a website.
What we ask of a partner
- A named executive sponsor. Projects that live inside innovation departments do not launch
- Access to your corporate banking relationships, or to your retail acquisition channel, as the initial pipeline
- A clear internal position on the regulatory pathway in your market
- A pilot commitment sized to prove the model, not to test our patience
From signature to first disbursement
-
Weeks 1–2
Market and regulatory fit
Licence category, applicable ceilings, assignable wage share, payroll practice, consumer protection requirements. Output: a go or no-go and a product specification.
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Weeks 2–4
Product and commercial design
Configuration, limits, tenors, pricing, guarantee or domiciliation structure, employer agreement, merchant policy. Output: signed terms and the documentation set.
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Weeks 4–8
Integration
Payment rails, settlement accounts, payroll or account data exchange, reporting. The platform is configured, not built.
-
Weeks 6–10
Pilot
A controlled cohort, full cycle from issuance through collection to reconciliation.
-
From week 10
Scale
Employer pipeline or account acquisition, merchant network, volume ramp.
Timelines assume regulatory engagement runs in parallel and no licensing application is required.
Partner enquiry
Request the partner pack
Tell us about your institution and market. We reply with a view on viability and the partner pack.
The ceiling field is optional, but it lets us give you a go or no-go on the first call.
Frequently asked questions
Does a lender need a new licence to run this product?
In most cases no — the product is consumer credit issued under an existing lending licence. What matters is whether your licence category's pricing ceiling accommodates the economics. That is the first thing we assess.
Does 7Later hold or move credit funds?
No. Credit funds remain under the lending partner's control. 7Later processes transaction instructions, records operations in its own ledger and transmits operation data to the lender, typically by webhook. It has no authority to dispose of credit funds.
Does 7Later take any position in the loan?
No. 7Later is not a party to the credit agreement, does not co-lend, does not provide a first-loss guarantee and does not share in credit losses. Our revenue comes from the platform relationship, not from the performance of the book. That separation is deliberate: it keeps the regulatory position clean and keeps our incentives on volume and reliability rather than on risk-taking.
What integration is required with the lender's core systems?
A defined perimeter covering transaction instruction, operation notification, settlement and reporting. 7Later does not connect to internal fund management or bookkeeping systems beyond that agreed scope.
Who owns the customer?
You do. The borrower is your customer, on your paper, with your brand where you choose. The platform can be deployed white-label.
Which model should a lender start with?
It depends on what the partner already has. A lender with strong corporate banking relationships can move fastest with payroll deduction, because the employers are already clients. A lender whose priority is growing low-cost retail deposits usually starts with salary domiciliation, since every borrower becomes a payroll account holder.
Can this be structured for Islamic finance?
The commercial mechanics — a fixed fee, a fixed short schedule, a defined goods-and-services perimeter and no interest accrual on delay — map onto murabaha-style structuring. We work with the partner's Sharia advisory on the specific contract form.
What size of institution does this suit?
Any licensed lender able to commit a defined retail book and to field a small dedicated operating team. Balance-sheet size matters less than clarity of mandate.