Launched by PayPal co-founder Levchin in 2012, Affirm partners more than 6500 merchants helping them drive sales, grow average order value, and increase repurchase rates through its point of sale buy now, pay later option.

About 6.2 million people use the platform, with two thirds of loans this year taken out by repeat users. The company's biggest money-maker is exercise bike outfit Peloton, while earlier this year it scored an exclusive deal with e-commerce marketplace Shopify.

According to its filing with the SEC, Affirm made about $510 million in revenue for the fiscal year ended 30 June, a 93% rise on the previous year. Net losses halved, to $15.3 million, in the last quarter.

The decision to go public comes just two months after a $500 million Series G funding round.

In a letter in the SEC filing, Levchin says he founded Affirm to take on the card industry and build "the first payment platform with a moral backbone and consumer-first mindset".

He continues: "Our core strengths and competitive advantages remain in two fundamental areas: we are very good at technology, and we are committed to being good. We know how to maximise the value of data, and we make it work on behalf of our customers. We've powered billions of dollars in transactions, yet we have never charged a single late fee.

"We believe that companies both established and new that peddle toxic financial products and derive profit from their consumers' missteps - like credit cards and other products with deferred interest - will find themselves in a shrinking minority before too long.

"We intend to hasten this change by offering honest alternatives in partnership with businesses similarly focused on their consumers' long-term prosperity, as well as their own."

Digital payments will be discussed in depth at EBAday 2020. For delegate passes, register now and join leaders from across Europe's payments ecosystem as EBAday addresses 'The Turning Point in Payments Transformation'.