The artificial intelligence-related layoffs sweeping corporate America could impact prime loan borrowers, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said.
“My concern is probably a little bit more like midterm than short term. If I look at short term, I think it looks fairly healthy… the big kind of unknown is the transformation that AI is driving,” Siemiatkowski told FOX Business, underscoring how the rapidly advancing technology has become a bigger threat to office-based workers than blue-collar workers.
Siemiatkowski, who steered the Swedish buy now, pay later firm through its IPO in September, said he’s closely watching the wave of corporate layoffs, pointing out that many of those affected aren’t individuals with subprime or low credit.
They are workers with solid credit ratings who could face more economic strain as AI reshapes the labor market. It’s almost the opposite of what lenders typically see when looking at credit ratings, according to Siemiatkowski.
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“These are people with more money that are being affected. It’s not the people who are doing the grocery jobs or the restaurant jobs… there’s big demand still,” he added. “But it is the office worker that has earned a lot of money where there’s more potential implications. So it’s very, very different than what we have seen historically.”
It’s something Klarna will “keep an eye on” as an issuer and credit lender, he said.
Still, Siemiatkowski remains confident about consumer health in the near term. The company reported global revenue up 26% year over year to $903 million, one of its strongest quarterly increases yet. Revenue was up 51% in the U.S. market. Klarna expects another record-breaking quarter during the holiday season, with revenue projected to top $1 billion.
The company has 114 million active consumers, with 27 million new active users in the prior three months. However, while Klarna is attracting more customers, the company’s average revenue per user fell about 10%.
Klarna’s actual loan losses improved slightly year over year, underscoring that consumers are still paying on time.
Sales of Klarna’s new Fair Financing loan product, which allows users to pay over several months with interest, surged 244% from last year. But that rapid growth comes with some short-term accounting effects which make the company’s reported $95 million loss look worse on paper than it really is, according to Siemiatkowski. He said that Klarna has to set aside money immediately for those potential loan losses, but only about 30% of the income from those loans shows up in the same period. The revenue comes later.
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After accounting for actual credit losses, Klarna’s profit from transactions increased by 25% in the third quarter. It expects about $100 million in additional profit from transactions in the fourth quarter as revenue continues to grow.
Meanwhile, Klarna’s debit-first Klarna Card, according to Siemiatkowski, has become a bright spot with over 4 million U.S. consumers signing up for it since it launched in July.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KLAR | KLARNA GROUP PLC | 32.53 | -2.35 | -6.74% |
Siemiatkowski said the company built a debit card that lets people tap into credit when they choose, rather than being pushed into it like with a traditional credit card, which is an approach he believes is really resonating with consumers. The company is also rolling out credit card–style rewards to go with that.
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“People are not used to seeing this kind of credit card like rewards on a debit card,” he said. “I think that that is a kind of next kicker that feels very exciting, and it feels like people are responding extremely well, too.”
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