Is the new CBA BNPL service bad news for Afterpay and Zip shares?

On Thursday Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) announced plans to take on Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) and Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) with the launch of its own buy now pay later (BNPL) service.

According to the release, the banking giant’s BNPL offering will begin rolling out to eligible CBA customers from mid-2021 and be able to be used anywhere debit and credit card payments are accepted.

The service closely resembles the Afterpay product for shoppers. It allows them to make fortnightly instalments for transactions and comes with a limit of $1,000.

However, the service differs for merchants, as it carries no additional merchant fees above…