Aug 27, 2026 earnings call — Affirm focuses on product expansion and credit control
Management said Q4 was the company's most profitable quarter ever and emphasized product expansion, with credit decisions made roughly 100 million times a quarter.
Revenue $1.2B (est $1.1B) · EPS $4.62 (est $0.35)
Key quotes
"For the moment, the majority of our products are various expressions of offering credit, but not necessarily at the point of sale."
"One of the things that the innovation team that I have now more time to run is working on is improving the in-store process."
"we are literally choosing the loans we want to make in real time in very small increments, roughly 100 million times a quarter."
Analyst Q&A 17
new products and timing
Q (Adam Frisch · Evercore): When will the new initiatives start to show up in results? Should Affirm offer more financial products beyond today?
A: Management said they already offer multiple consumer products beyond point-of-sale credit, including a card, an account, and business products. They expect to keep expanding and plan work that will show up in fiscal '28 and '29, while not overpromising.
"For the moment, the majority of our products are various expressions of offering credit, but not necessarily at the point of sale." — Max Levchin (CEO)
merchant adoption challenges
Q (Harry Bartlett · Rothschild): What stops Affirm from signing the remaining top merchants and how will you close the gap?
A: Management said there is no single impediment; large merchants have long sales cycles and often need system work to add a new checkout option. Their sales team will keep signing merchants, sometimes one-by-one, and there is still a lot of greenfield opportunity.
"I think the majority of the time for large merchants, these are long sales cycles that take a lot less convincing than ever before." — Max Levchin (CEO)
scaling in-store experience
Q (Harshita Rawat · Bernstein): How will Affirm scale in-store usage of the Affirm Card and reduce friction like approvals and declines?
A: Management said improving in-store is a focus and is mainly about fixing many specific friction points like connectivity, POS integration, and handling declines in line. They plan to launch new, uniquely Affirm ideas in coming quarters to make offline experience much better.
"Most things, payments in general, are very rarely about uncovering some low-hanging fruit that was just already in the ground, you need to pick it up." — Max Levchin (CEO)
UK launch feedback
Q (Robert Wildhack · Autonomous): How have consumers and merchants in the U.K. received Affirm and any competitor response?
A: Management said early feedback in the U.K. has been very positive from both merchants and consumers, describing strong uptake and appreciation for Affirm's transparent product. They reported little competitive response so far and view their product as unique in that market.
"So I think we're doing well in terms of creating new friends and early fans." — Max Levchin (CEO)
product mix and interest loans
Q (William Nance · Goldman Sachs): How are you thinking about product mix given growth in interest-bearing products and Pay-in-X? Any dynamics from promotions?
A: Management said mix shifts are happening between point-of-sale and direct-to-consumer products, with direct-to-consumer being north of 80% interest-bearing. Growth of products like Affirm Card is pushing mix slightly toward more interest-bearing loans.
"So we're running sort of north of 80% interest-bearing on our direct-to-consumer products." — Max Levchin (CEO)
scale and network effects
Q (Dan Dolev · Mizuho): Why does Affirm find it easier to grow with scale while some competitors do not?
A: Management said they focus on building a network and make product and capital decisions that benefit the whole network, which creates virtuous cyclical value as they grow. They believe long-term focus and consistency lead to profitability, pricing power, and sustainable growth.
"The larger we get, the more valuable the network becomes, the more activity that happens on the edges of the graph we're building and the more people, the more merchants want to join the graph." — Max Levchin (CEO)
credit policy and modeling GAAP EPS
Q (Jason Kupferberg · Wells Fargo): Are there signs of consumer stress or delinquencies? Could you loosen credit? Also, how to model GAAP EPS for fiscal '27?
A: On GAAP EPS, management said GAAP operating income and share count are provided and they expect a GAAP tax rate in the mid- to high 20% range, but tax rate may be volatile. On credit, they said they control approvals in real time (about 100 million decisions a quarter), constantly tune policy, and would slow growth before experiencing credit problems.
"We think on sort of a run rate basis, the GAAP tax rate lands in sort of the mid- to high 20% range." — Robert O'Hare (CFO)
Pay-in-X growth and merchant use
Q (James Faucette · Morgan Stanley): How will you expand Pay-in-X and is it a gateway to more 0% promotions?
A: Management said free use of money is valuable and 0% promotions appeal across the credit spectrum, especially for longer loans. They seek partners (merchants, manufacturers, platforms) to fund these offers and will continue to grow and tailor these programs to merchant needs.
"So kind of the most important things to understand is free use of money is valuable to all consumers." — Max Levchin (CEO)
services vertical acceleration
Q (Connor Allen · JPMorgan): What drove the services vertical to almost double and is that growth sustainable?
A: Management said they signed a couple of very large services platforms that are doing well and growing, and they are co-building product adaptations for those integrations. They cautioned they are still early in that opportunity and not yet past the first inning.
"We're still very, very early in all of those platforms." — Max Levchin (CEO)
Affirm Edge traction and timing
Q (Bryan Keane · Citi): Any traction on Affirm Edge pilots this quarter and could it be a needle mover in fiscal '28? Also drivers of revenue less transaction costs guidance?
A: On revenue less transaction costs, management said better debt capital markets execution and a stable funding mix support guidance and take rates are consistent with fiscal '26. On Edge, they said banks move slowly due to regulatory approvals and some tech work remains, but reception is positive and they will handhold initial launches carefully.
"So there's a fair number of people that have to okay and bless structures." — Max Levchin (CEO)
leasing and device upgrades
Q (Matthew O'Neill · BofA): Why not pursue leasing or device upgrade products as part of your strategy?
A: Management said subscription-style device upgrades are a good idea but leasing has complexity and rent-to-own history that raises concerns; they prefer to design from first principles and aim for solutions less prone to later problems, with more to say in the future.
"The notion of kind of a subscription to your device and an automatic upgrade to the latest and greatest on unpredictable cadence, it's actually a really good idea." — Max Levchin (CEO)
Affirm Money Account status
Q (Andrew Bauch · BMO): Any update on Affirm Money Account and its interplay with Affirm Card?
A: Management said they have an in-house debit/checking product that is tightly integrated with Affirm Card and serves as a real example of what Edge will offer banks. They called it a great product and encouraged connecting Affirm Card to Affirm Money Account, with more updates next quarter.
"If you haven't connected your Affirm Card to your Affirm Money Account, you should definitely try that." — Max Levchin (CEO)
Affirm Card growth drivers
Q (Moshe Orenbuch · TD Cowen): Will Affirm Card growth come from higher attach rates or higher spending per card? What are you doing to improve these?
A: Management said both attach rate and spend-per-card matter. They aim to make the card the best way to use Affirm by launching card-specific features and rewards tied to merchant-funded 0% offers, which make the card more compelling and should raise attach and usage metrics.
"To accomplish that, I think a key goal in managing a successful credit business is you have to remember that your job is to help someone spend money responsibly." — Max Levchin (CEO)
competitive differentiation
Q (Darrin Peller · Wolfe): How do you view competitors rolling out BNPL and debit flex cards? Is your debit flex card differentiated?
A: Management said they focus on their own product and believe their Visa Flexible Credential and financing program breadth are unique. They argued merchant-funded 0% offers provide value equivalent to large cashback but without interest, and that combination is hard to replicate.
"I think the Visa Flexible Credential that we put together with them is a unique construct and has now been adopted by a couple of players, which is great." — Max Levchin (CEO)
gain-on-sale revenue mix
Q (Daniel Perlin · RBC): Why was gain-on-sale revenue strong and how should we think about mix in fiscal '27?
A: Management said some quarters will show more gain-on-sale when they do nonconsolidated ABS deals, as in Q4, and they expect a similar funding plan in fiscal '27 with about 2 such deals in fiscal '26 as a reference. They stopped sharing an exact ABS schedule.
"So we stopped sort of sharing an exact schedule of nonconsolidated ABS deals for fiscal '27, but I think we did 2 in fiscal '26, and we would expect to have a pretty similar funding plan from that perspective going into fiscal '27." — Max Levchin (CEO)
customer and merchant maturation
Q (John Hecht · Jefferies): Are customers using Affirm more quickly after launches? Do merchants reach penetration faster?
A: Management said time from launch to impact has tightened due to better coordination and automated processes, so merchants see meaningful results faster. Transactions per user per year are rising, helped by more visible touchpoints and co-marketing with merchants.
"The time from launch to meaningful impact to the first report to the merchant saying, "Horay, we're doing this for you. Let's get excited. Let's do more together." It just is a lot tighter." — Max Levchin (CEO)
approval rates vs competitors
Q (Timothy Chiodo · UBS): How do Affirm's approval rates compare to competitors and what do you pitch merchants about incremental GMV?
A: Management said merchants often ask for guaranteed approval rates but Affirm avoids promising rates because it needs flexibility to change policy. They focus on precise risk sorting and prefer competitors to approve deeper so those competitors will reveal worse losses over time.
"As a rule, we try very hard not to even talk about those things because that's always a counterweight to our ability to modify a credit policy on the fly as we must." — Max Levchin (CEO)