Fintech startup Uni temporarily stops servicing existing card users

Uni, a fintech startup offering buy-now-pay-later solutions, has temporarily stopped servicing its existing card users bringing its card offering to a screeching halt. This comes after the company had paused issuing new cards in June, after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) communication to industry stakeholders, which barred the loading of prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) through credit lines.

“Due to the latest RBI guidelines on digital lending, we have temporarily suspended card services. This means your card will be inactive for now. We are working with our banking partners to resume the card services as soon as possible and will keep you posted,” the company said in a message to users.

ET has seen a copy of Uni’s customer communication sent earlier on Friday.

Uni, said that the move from the company won’t result in any changes to a customer’s billing and repayments. “ Your Uni Cash will work as usual. It’s the quickest way to transfer your credit line directly to your bank account. To avoid any inconvenience to you, we are extending a zero-charge limit on Uni Cash till September 21, 2022. Check your Uni app for more details,” the note to Uni users added.

When contacted, Uni’s founder Nitin Gupta didn’t immediately respond to ET’s request for comment.

Last year in December,
Uni raised one of the largest Series A funding, at the time racking up $70 million from investors led by General Catalyst.

Uni’s latest move comes after the SBM Bank, delivered a final blow to card-fintechs, after it told its card-fintech partners earlier this week to
immediately stop onboarding new users for its co-branded credit prepaid card product.

This has impacted several startups in the space, including partners Slice, Uni, and LazyPay.

As an impact of the development, ET also reported on August 19, citing sources that Slice, the credit card challenger unicorn, has also temporarily stopped issuing new prepaid cards but continues to onboard users through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) railroad through no-cost EMIs and cash transfer offerings.

ET had also reported on July 5 that LazyPay, the lending arm of PayU India, also temporarily stopped support for its buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) payment product LazyPlus UPI amid rising regulatory concerns for card-based credit fintech firms.

The product, launched by the company in September 2020, allows users to pay through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) channel from a revolving credit line issued to the customer.LazyPay was looking to change its ‘LazyCard’ offering from a prepaid card to a credit card. It also stopped new card issuances in June after RBI’s diktat.

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