A three-way collaboration between Singapore’s DBS Bank, Mastercard and India’s Pine Labs will offer two million Asian customers a new buy now, pay later (BNPL) option on their credit cards.

The flexible payment program allows cardholders at DBS Bank and its subsidiary, POSB, to pay via interest-free instalments when using their DBS/POSB credit cards at ‘Pay Later’ merchants.

The ‘Mastercard Instalments with Pine Labs’ program was launched in Singapore this month and will be followed by further rollouts in Indonesia and Hong Kong over coming months.

Available on all DBS Mastercard, Visa and American Express credit cards, the service offers instant approval at checkout for instalments up to a pre-approved credit limit, plus flexible repayment periods with no interest charges. Initially available only for local transactions, the service will be expanded to cross-border transactions in later phases.

“We are excited to be the first regional issuer in Asia to partner with Mastercard on this innovative BNPL solution,” DBS Bank’s group product head Ananya Sen said in a statement.

“This will scale our BNPL touchpoints significantly, allowing two million customers to enjoy our BNPL offering across an extensive range of physical stores, eCommerce platforms and through our apps.”

The partnership combines the expertise and reach of Mastercard and Indian merchant commerce platform and payments technology firm Pine Labs, with DBS Bank’s wide regional footprint.

Dheeraj Chowdhry, Pine Labs’ Chief Business Officer and Head of Pay Later in Southeast Asia, said the BNPL venture means merchants can potentially capture sales they might not have otherwise had.

“With Mastercard’s vast payments network, and DBS’s extensive customer base and deep knowledge of regional commerce, we look forward to a partnership that I believe will rapidly accelerate the growth of this financing option,” Chowdhry said.

Mastercard has already ventured into the BNPL space, launching a commercial BNPL card in November last year to provide more flexible financing options for small businesses in APAC. Using this card, businesses can convert any purchase from 80 million merchants worldwide, wherever Mastercard is accepted, into periodic or monthly instalments.

According to the 2022 Global Payments Report by Worldpay from FIS, BNPL is projected to be the world’s fastest-growing payment method both online and in-store between 2021 and 2025. The report also says BNPL will be the fastest-growing type of e-commerce payment in Singapore, Hong Kong and India over the next three years.