Harvey Norman is reviewing its financial services strategy ahead of Amazon's launch in Australia amid concern the local retail chain's consumer finance products may not stack up against payments options to be offered by the US retailing giant.The review, which could have big implications for the local retailer's existing financial services partners - Latitude Financial and Flexigroup - is already driving changes to the company's approach to in-store finance.Banking Day can reveal that Harvey Norman is preparing to ramp up consumer lending activity by its in-house finance arm, Network Consumer Finance Pty Ltd.The company will brand its consumer finance product as the "Smartloan" and pitch it as "the smarter way to pay" throughout its proprietary and franchised network.Until about 15 years ago, NCF had a consumer loan book of more than A$100 million, but that has since tapered to only $2 million as the retailer's sales staff directed most customers to the Latitude GO Mastercard or a Flexigroup consumer lease.While the company stopped promoting NCF loans more than a decade ago, it retained the in-house lending capability for customers who were reluctant to sign up for a credit card or lease.The NCF loans have not been very profitable for Harvey Norman and were typically offered free of interest and fees.They have been used by franchisees as aids to clinch sales.The rejig of Harvey Norman's financial services arrangements comes at a particularly sensitive time for Latitude's private equity owner, KKR, which has been giving confidential briefings to brokers and professional investors about the business since September 2016.KKR was believed to be preparing to float the business on the ASX, but in recent months Latitude has been linked as a potential merger partner for Pepper Group.Amazon's arrival has the potential to disrupt Latitude's business model, which relies heavily on sales finance alliances with big retailers such as Harvey Norman, Apple, JB Hi-Fi and Freedom Furniture.In a document presented to investors last year Latitude claimed it accounted for 71 per cent of all sales finance conducted on credit cards in Australia. The company also revealed that it issued more than 118,000 credit cards through retailers in 2015 and the average revolving balance per card was $2,769.The gross yield on Latitude's portfolio of 1 million active credit cards was reported as 17.3 per cent.While that makes Latitude's sales finance business a lucrative profit-spinner, it also means it is probably ripe for disruption by a new entrant ready to launch a low-priced credit card. Amazon is one of the fastest-growing credit card originators in the US where it has been able to lure customers with cash-back offers and interest-free purchase terms through co-branded cards.It currently issues three co-branded cards on the back of distribution deals with Chase Bank and Synchrony Bank.Amazon is also deepening its internal credit management and payments capabilities and is viewed by US banking analysts as a prospective acquirer of a stand-alone credit card provider such as Capital One.Experts are divided on whether Amazon might eventually seek to issue its own credit