In a notice on its website, the company says: "As of 28 February 2023, Affirm has made the decision to begin an orderly wind-down of our operations in Australia."

Emails are being sent to active loan holders who will see no change to their plans.

Launched by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin in 2012, Affirm partners thousands of merchants to provide installment payment plans to millions of users in the US, Canada and Australia.

The company rode the BNPL wave to an IPO in 2021 and has since secured deals with blue chip players including Amazon and Target.

However, last month it said it was cutting 500 employees and killing off its crypto ambitions, with Levchin stating that “Everything changed in mid-2022”.

He continued: "Growing rapidly over the last few years, and especially through the pandemic, we hired ahead of the revenue required to support the size of the team.”

Australia was once seen as particularly fertile ground for BNPL but Affirm’s exit comes weeks after local player Openpay fell into receivership.