Less than two years after introduction, NatWest will abandon the BNPL option.

According to a story from The Sun, the British bank, which has over 18 million customers, will start canceling the accounts of BNPL customers on May 7 of this year.

The decision was allegedly taken as a result of the offering's lower than anticipated usage after it was first introduced with great excitement.

"We are focusing on our core lending products, helping customers spread the cost of their purchases through our credit cards, overdrafts, and loans," a NatWest spokeswoman said in a statement to Finextra. This implies that we will be discontinuing our Buy Now Pay Later proposal.

BNPL services, made popular by apps like those from the Swedish company Klarna, allow customers to spread out or postpone the expense of their purchases over a certain time period, usually interest-free.

An estimated 15.1 million people in the UK used BNPL plans over the Christmas season, based on data provided by Citizens Advice.

Due to these data, BNPL is now accepted at online checkouts for large businesses like H&M and Argos, indicating an expansion in its availability as a payment option.

With NatWest's BNPL program, customers could pay back their purchases over four equal monthly installments without incurring interest. The NatWest mobile app made managing these plans easy.

The Sun has asserted that traditional options, such as NatWest's "instalment plan" for credit card holders, continue to enjoy greater appeal among customers than the BNPL offering, despite the option's success across other companies.

The ability to be engaged for up to five eligible transactions is a fundamental differentiator between the BNPL product and the current instalment plans; on the other hand, BNPL automatically applies instalment plans to all purchases.

With NatWest's installment plan, credit cardholders can spread out the payback of certain purchases across three, six, twelve, or twenty-four months.