The board of instalment payment provider Splitit has axed the company’s chief executive of two years, Brad Paterson, saying “a proactive change of leadership” was necessary “to continue building on its achievements.”

John Harper, former chief operating officer of US retailer Macy’s, has been appointed interim CEO.The company released its financial report for the six months to June yesterday, detailing a 94 per cent increase in merchant sales volumes to US$172.5 million and a 79.7 per cent increase in revenue to US$5.5 million.

The company made a loss of US$18.8 million, compared with a loss of US$8.9 million in the June half last year. Net cash outflow from operating activities was US$14.1 million

Splitit provides a variation on the standard buy now pay later offering. It allows consumers to use an existing credit card to pay for purchases on an instalment basis, with no fees or interest.

The company has partnerships with Mastercard and UnionPay International. It has 2800 merchants (up 167 per cent over the same period last year) and 566,000 consumers (up 83 per cent).

The receivables impairment expense was US$1.5 million on receivables of US$52.8 million (there was no impairment expense in the previous corresponding period).

During the half it moved away from funding debit card transactions to reduce credit risk and it changed its collection process, so that collections are managed via a secure pre-authorised gateway.