← AFRM forward model

AFRM · Forward model · Gain on sales of loans

What has to happen in Gain on sales of loans

Model as of

This page changes Gain on sales of loans inside the complete AFRM model. Every other vertical, corporate programme and valuation assumption stays in the selected portfolio case.

AFRM forward model
Horizon
Consolidated fair value $108.92 all other verticals held in this portfolio case
Final-quarter revenue $352M 13% of company revenue
Explicit segment contribution $3.82B EBITDA less segment capex, before corporate items

Gain on sales of loans

Basis quarter$165M
Final quarter$352M
Implied CAGR+16%
Final revenue mix13%

What Affirm books when it sells originated paper to forward-flow buyers and securitisation trusts instead of holding it. It is the release valve on the balance sheet: every loan sold is capital freed to originate again, and the price it fetches is the market's live opinion of Affirm's underwriting.

Last four quarters
2026 Q1 $119M Reported
2026 Q2 $185M Reported
2026 Q3 $127M Reported
2026 Q4 $165M Reported
Forward-flow loan sales to third-party buyersSecuritisation trust sales
Units 14057/qtr growing +6.5% per quarter The same $14,057M of GMV that drives merchant network revenue. Move both together or neither.
Price per unit $11744 drifting 0.0% per quarter $11,744 per $1M of GMV: 1.174%, derived from $165.1M on $14,057M. Affirm discloses no sale volumes.
Gain on sales of loans

Latest: $352M (2031Q4E)

Period Value
2025Q2 $125M
2025Q3 $76M
2025Q4 $117M
2026Q1 $119M
2026Q2 $185M
2026Q3 $127M
2026Q4 $165M
2027Q1E $176M
2027Q2E $187M
2027Q3E $199M
2027Q4E $212M
2028Q1E $226M
2028Q2E $241M
2028Q3E $257M
2028Q4E $273M
2029Q1E $291M
2029Q2E $310M
2029Q3E $330M
2029Q4E $351M
2030Q1E $352M
2030Q2E $352M
2030Q3E $352M
2030Q4E $352M
2031Q1E $352M
2031Q2E $352M
2031Q3E $352M
2031Q4E $352M

Assumptions & reasoning

  • Affirm does not disclose how much paper it sells in a quarter or at what price, so this line is modelled on the denominator it does disclose: GMV. The unit is one million dollars of volume, and the $11,744 it earns per million is a derived rate, not a published one.
  • That rate has now run between $8,814 and $13,422 per $1M of GMV across seven reported quarters with no trend, which is why the drift is still zero. FQ4'26 landed at 1.174%, inside the range and above the 1.10% of March. The letter attributes the increase to a 26% growth in loans sold plus 29 bp of more favourable loan sale pricing.
  • THE LUMPINESS IS NOW ON THE RECORD AND IT IS STRUCTURAL. On the call, management said that quarters carrying a non-consolidated ABS deal show 'a bit more gain on sale revenue', that Affirm did two such deals in FY2026 - one of them in FQ4 - and that it has stopped publishing the schedule for FY2027. So this line is not merely seasonal, it is deal-timed, and a smooth quarterly rate applied to GMV will be wrong every single quarter in a direction nobody outside the company can predict. The zero drift is the honest response to that, not a forecast.
  • GMV growth and the ceiling here are identical to the merchant network line by construction, because it is the same volume. If you move one, move the other, or the model is describing two different companies.
  • The margin near 91% is the highest in the model and the most fragile assumption in it: the credit cost of sold loans sits with the buyer, so almost nothing lands against this revenue except a share of processing. A forward-flow market that reprices does not lower this margin, it removes the revenue.
  • This is the line that goes first in a funding shock. In 2022 the securitisation market closed to consumer paper for months, and a company with $30.0B of committed capacity still needs a bid for what it originates beyond what it can hold.
AFRM model map

Explore another vertical