According to the Wall Street Journal, the buy-and-pay installment plan of Affirm Holdings Inc. (AFRM.US), an American financial technology lender, is becoming more popular and the company is relying more on investors than lenders to finance its growth. Affirm provides short-term loans to customers at the end of the point of sale, with payment terms ranging from three months to five years. Affirm relies on cooperation with Walmart Inc (WMT.US), Amazon.Com Inc (AMZN.US) and other companies to provide buy-and-pay loans. Merchandise trading on Affirm totaled $2.5 billion in the quarter ended June 30, about twice as much as in the same period a year earlier. One of the ways a company can fund its business is through securitisation. In the quarter ended June 30, Affirm's cash from securitization provided about 1/3 of its $4.7 billion buy-and-pay loan portfolio. In a securitisation deal, the company packages its loans into securities and sells them to investors. DBRS Morningstar estimates that consumers will spend between $15 billion and $20 billion on such loans on e-commerce platforms in 2020, up from $6 billion to $9 billion in 2019. Buy first and pay later is also a focus of recent M & An activities. Payment company PayPal Holdings Inc Holdings Inc. (PYPL.US) said this month that it would buy Japanese start-up Paidy Inc.; for $2.7 billion. Square, INC. Inc. (SQ.US) last month reached an agreement to buy Australia's Afterpay Ltd. (AFPTPF.US) for $29 billion.