Why Are Affirm, Afterpay, PayPal Shares Trading Lower Today?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on December 16 sought information from buy now, pay later (BNPL) companies regarding their compliance with federal lending laws and regulations, Bloomberg Law reports.

• The BNPL firms include Affirm Holdings Inc AFRM, Afterpay Ltd AFTPY, Klarna, PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL, and Zip.
• The CFPB ordered the most prominent players in the BNPL industry for information about consumer protection concerns that have arisen about the burgeoning product.
• The CFPB also wants the BNPL companies to disclose how consumers can accumulate debt through their apps, product design and report debts to consumer credit bureaus.
• The information sought is similar to the ones sent to Apple Inc AAPL, Amazon.com Inc AMZN, and Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google in October.
• Price Action: AFRM shares traded lower by 11.50% at $98.22, AFTPY shares traded lower by 4.30% at $61.43, and PYPL shares traded lower by 0.6% at $189.44 on the last check Thursday.