After Rebound, Affirm Eyes Path to Profits

Affirm was among last year’s top stock market performers, as the company narrowed its losses and investors cheered deals with Amazon and Walmart that expanded the lender’s reach with shoppers. That marked a dramatic rebound from 2022, when rising interest rates upended Affirm’s business.

But while Affirm’s revenue growth has recently rebounded, the company remains unprofitable, and it is still figuring out the best way to lend money profitably while interest rates remain high. To that end, it’s been adjusting how it decides what loans and rates to offer shoppers so it can better account for how profitable the loan will be, in addition to the odds a borrower will pay it back, a current employee said. That approach could result in Affirm offering fewer shoppers the zero-interest “buy now, pay later” loans that made the loans so popular with young people.