Wall Street's Most Boring Insurer Goes Full Degen... Tosses Another $750M Into Affirm’s Loan Casino

New York Life has an addiction and the only prescription is jumping into more BNPL loan pools…

The 179-year-old insurance suit just can’t get enough of Affirm’s high-yield consumer debt cocktail. Yesterday, the company your dad almost definitely has a whole life policy with re-upped its tab… agreeing to buy another $750 million worth of Affirm loans through 2026.

Is there anything else that screams “responsible long-term planning” like betting your clients pension funds on whether someone remembers to make their late night Taco Bell run payment?

(Source: CNBC)

The move gives Affirm some sweet off-balance-sheet financing… meaning it gets the cash, but someone else takes the risk. It’ll help fund around $1.75 billion in annual loans, keeping the buy-now-pay-later machine humming just as consumer wallets start squeaking.

In case you’re wondering, this isn’t the old man’s first dance. New York Life’s already pumped close to $2 billion into Affirm’s loan pools since 2023. Clearly, “Buy Now, Pay Later” isn’t just for broke millennials anymore… it’s for boomers chasing yield too.

And it’s not alone. Insurers like Liberty Mutual and PGIM have been quietly loading up on fintech-backed consumer debt because, let’s face it… when Treasuries pay 4%, a sexy 9% Affirm loan is impossible to resist.

Even PayPal got in on the BNPL action… partnering with Blue Owl Capital on a $7 billion loan venture that’s now helping bankroll Meta’s $27 billion “Hyperion” AI data center in Louisiana. So yes, your PayPal Credit tab might be indirectly funding Zuck’s next server farm.

Meanwhile, Klarna’s been making eyes at Nelnet and Pagaya, because fintech debt has become the new crypto… everyone knows it’s risky, but nobody wants to be the one sitting out the mania.

Affirm CEO Max Levchin says 90% of borrowers come back for more, framing it as loyalty. Others might call that… a dependency issue.

Still, Affirm insists credit performance is strong, spending is steady, and delinquencies are easing. And with big institutions lining up for another hit of BNPL-backed yield, the business looks pretty damn unstoppable… at least for now.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Meta as mentioned in the article.