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The booming growth of buy-now pay-later giant Afterpay (ASX: APT) has continued in the first quarter, with sales more than doubling year-on-year.
The company has also seen its customer base climb above 11 million people globally, up from 5.7 million in Q1 FY20, with US customer numbers cracking more than 6.5 million.
A strong performance in the quarter across all regions led to underlying sales increasing by 115 per cent to $4.1 billion, 9 per cent higher than its previous quarterly record achieved in Q4 FY20.
The platform has well and truly taken off overseas, with underlying sales more than quadrupling in the UK, up 346 per cent to $300 million, and more than tripling in the US up 229 per cent to $1.6 billion.
In-store underlying sales are returning for Afterpay following a gradual reopening of stores, and are trending back towards pre COVID-19 levels at approximately 20 per cent of total A-NZ underlying sales.
The quarterly update follows a strong few months for Afterpay, during which it signed a major deal with Westpac (ASX: WBC) and cleared things up with AUSTRAC.
The company's deal with big-four bank Westpac will see it introduce savings accounts and cash flow management tools for its more than three million customers in Australia.
Users of the Afterpay and Westpac product will be able to access their new savings account to conduct the majority of activities they would normally with a traditional bank account, like paying bills, withdrawing cash, and budgeting.
Earlier this month the company wrapped things up with the financial crimes regulator, with AUSTRAC deciding to take no further regulatory action in regard to an anti-money laundering investigation.
The watchdog noted Afterpay had uplifted its AML/CTF compliance framework and financial crime function, and satisfactorily completed all required remediation activity.
Looking forward Afterpay says its acquisition of BNPL platform Pagantis is progressing well and due for completion by the end of the 2020 calendar year.
The deal would give Afterpay a licence to operate in Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, as well as pending licence applications in German and Poland.
Afterpay also says its plans to expand into Asia are progressing, with a base having been established in Singapore to drive the development of the South East Asia market.
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