Fair point and retailers would love upfront payment rather than...

Fair point and retailers would love upfront payment rather than one over say 3 years. However, another sticking point for merchant adoption and sustenance is also the fees. APT charges something in the range of 4% to 6% whereas SPT is around the 1.5% mark. I suppose there is cost for that credit after all. As long as the existing on-boarded merchants are not bounded into contract by APT, there is no reason why they couldn't offer more than one BNPL provider with different pricing.