Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has announced it will launch its own buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform, StepPay. StepPay will be competing with other BNPL platforms like AfterPay, which signed a historic $39 billion acquisition deal with American company Square on Aug. 3. Existing CBA customers will be able to use the new BNPL service in any retail and business where Mastercard is accepted, giving services like AfterPay competition inaccessibility. “We’re excited to create the first BNPL from a major bank which can be used anywhere our cards are accepted,” CBA executive general manager Marcos Meneguzzi said. “We know BNPL is a popular choice among customers but is hampered by its limited use and availability in only selected retailers and businesses.” The bank revealed that 86,000 customers had pre-registered for the service, reflecting its previous research, which found that over three-quarters of existing BNPL users were interested in a BNPL service …