BNPL loans issued by PayPal are sold for more than $43 billion in Europe.

On Tuesday, June 20, the payments company announced a loan sale to investment firm KKR. The loans were issued in France, Spain, Germany, the UK and Italy.

In addition, future BNPL loans that meet the criteria will be underwritten by KKR. PayPal will continue to be responsible for all customer-facing activities related to its BNPL product in Europe.

According to Gabrielle Rabinovitch, PayPal’s acting chief financial officer, “Buy Now, Pay Later has become a key benefit of the PayPal checkout process. It drives engagement, volume growth and repeat use, while delivering valuable customers to our merchants.”

In Europe, the partnership will enable PayPal to advance its BNPL business “in line with market demand while preserving free cash flow for other strategic initiatives,” she continued.

As PYMNTS noted last month, recent financial results from PayPal and other companies offering BNPL services demonstrate this need.

PayPal itself said BNPL volumes increased 70% year-over-year to $6 billion. Block reported that its BNPL offering brought in $5.6 billion in volume in the first quarter, representing 18% year-over-year growth. The annual growth rate for Affirm was also 18%.

Meanwhile, PayPal management emphasized that customers who use the BNPL service spend 30 percent more at brand checkout and over 90 percent of them are already PayPal customers.

According to recent PYMNTS data, consumers – at least younger consumers – are using BNPL to pay for groceries, among other things.

A PYMNTS and i2c study titled “The Credit Economy: How Younger Consumers Make Credit Decisions” found that more than 10% of BNPL members’ recent purchases were groceries.

In the customer survey, 14% of Generation X consumers and 15% of Millennials using BNPL said their last transaction of this type was for groceries.

In addition, BNPL service providers stated that they would like to encourage adoption of additional types of purchases, such as groceries.

“Anything that brings spending back in line with cash flow, I think, is good for consumers,” said Greg Lisiewski, vice president of global pay later products at PayPal, in an interview with PYMNTS TV. And these solutions will catch on in industries other than retail, too.