Scarlett Sieber here, chief strategy growth officer for Money 2020, and I have the one, the only Sebastian Siemiatkowski, the CEO of Klarna, but really for me, the proud Swede, that's what we're doing here.
So let's just get right to it, Sebastian.
You and I just got off the main stage with Takis Georgiakopoulos, the.
President of Pfizer.
Lots of great things that are happening here.
I'm curious, you were a pioneer in the fintech space on the continent of Europe, and when you started, buy now, pay later was viewed as a disruptive alternative payment method.
We've come a long way from there.
Are we done?
Where are we?
Where are we going from here?
Well, we're in an extremely exciting phase right now because we have finally reached a place where our partners like Stripe, Adon, and all of these and JPMorgan Chase and so forth are adding us not only as an alternative payment method but as default.
We're now part of the package together with Visa and Mastercard, and that is now.
Rolled out and it has accelerated growth of the number of merchants and allows us to bring payment methods for both everyday purchases for the charge card equivalent of buy an app later and big ticket span.
So I think it's we've come far, but there's an amazing opportunity ahead.
There definitely is.
And as commerce enters the agentic era, we can't stop talking about agents and the way that we pay changes.
Do you see short term lending becoming more embedded in everyday experiences?
Just talk about the view of lending.
I think the charge card equivalent product of buy now pay later is so healthier to consumers.
It doesn't try.
Make you revolve bigger big balance.
It's fixed term installments paying for 0% interest.
It is genuinely a better option for consumers and in a world with lower information asymmetries where things can easily be compared, I think consumers are more and more consumers are waking up and seeing the benefits of these compared to credit cards, so that is definitely going to continue.
So you listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Obviously we've talked about the Swedish connection.
When you think about the European landscape and the US landscape, what are you most excited about both?
Where do you see the contrasts?
I think it's fantastic that we have built this business originally in Europe thanks to the fact that we can passport our bank license across all of the.
Markets we now basically have one tech platform, one offering for a huge audience.
In total we have over 120 million consumers, but the largest market today is the US and it's the fastest growing one, which also excites us a lot, and I think to some degree, even the fact that we are coming from a more frugal market where interchange is regulated.
Means that to us, you look at the US market with 200 basis points for credit cards, looks very attractive because we're used to operating at very, very different revenue lines, so it just shows tremendous opportunity to now grow and offer more affordable solutions for both consumers and merchants alike in the US.
And you've really changed the game of the continent and beyond for the last decade.
Where does Klarna go from here?
I think we're just going to continue with what I said.
It was just like making sure we reach parity with Visa and Mastercard as a network for for being available everywhere and then in addition to that, continue our efforts to try to build a preferred brand for consumers that they prefer and want to use for all of their everyday spending.
Amazing.
Well, that will do it for today.
Taking stock.
Thank you so much, Sebastian Simyakovsky.
Great to have you here.
Thank you for having me.
