AFRM

What You Should Know

Affirm Holdings is one of the largest US buy now, pay later (BNPL) lenders, providing point-of-sale installment financing in partnership with merchants like Amazon, Walmart, and Shopify. While Affirm markets itself as offering 'no late fees' and a portion of its volume is genuinely 0% APR (subsidized by merchants), the company's core revenue model relies on interest charged to consumers — APRs on interest-bearing loans typically range from 10% to 36%. Interest income from consumer loans is the largest component of revenue, making the company a conventional consumer finance lender for Sharia screening purposes. Affirm also packages and sells loan portfolios through asset-backed securitizations, which are themselves interest-based instruments. The company fails the qualitative business activity screen at every major Sharia advisory board.