July 20 (Reuters) - Australia's Zip Co Ltd said on Thursday it faced a jump in bad debts at home grounds, its biggest market by revenue, during the March-June quarter as consumer credit was affected by "increasing softness" in the external environment.

The country's biggest standalone buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) provider said Australia's June-quarter net bad debts, which are written off as a percentage of total transaction value, came in at 3.1% - its highest value since the first quarter of 2022.

(Reporting by Roushni Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)