NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Prudential Financial's

PGIM Fixed Income has completed the private purchase of $500 million worth of loans from buy-now-pay-later firm Affirm Holdings , the two companies said on Tuesday.

The transaction deepens Affirm's partnership with PGIM Fixed Income, which manages an asset-based finance business with more than $120 billion in assets under management across public and private securitized credit

PGIM Fixed Income had also invested in Affirm's assets in the past through asset-backed securitizations, the statement said.

PGIM Fixed Income has originated multiple billions of dollars of asset-backed financing this year and expects to nearly triple the amount next year, Edwin Wilches, Managing Director and Co-Head of Securitized Products at PGIM Fixed Income, told Reuters.

"The economy is growing, need for financing is growing and the traditional lender banks have less appetite or have less ability to do (these kinds of financing). So there's a gap," he said.

Other factors that are helping to grow the ABF market for fund managers is more flows into fixed income markets as yields are higher, insurance companies are growing and diversifying, while additional demand is coming from pensions.

"We see U.S. pension funds being attracted to ABF deals as they provide attractive spreads while achieving a diversification benefit away from their pre-existing public and private corporate-focused portfolios," Wilches said.

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

((Saeed.Azhar@thomsonreuters.com; +1 347 908-6341; Reuters Messaging: saeed.azhar.reuters.com@reuters.net))