Less than three years after launching payment and lending apps in the key global market, the Chinese company has quietly discontinued its financial services in India.
The Mi Pay and Mi Credit apps were pulled from the local Play Store by the Chinese giant. Mi Pay, which allowed users to make transactions on the nation's UPI payments network, is no longer listed among the recognized UPI apps.
The two companies did not reply to the request for comment.
The sudden wind down of the financial services business is a blow to the company, which commands the smartphone market in the country and has aggressively expanded its offerings to increase profits.
Mi pay was launched in India. Company executives said at the time that the app had 20 million registered users.
Mi Credit is an app that gives customers between $70 to $1,400 at low interest rates. In a matter of minutes, it accessed users' texts and call logs to look for transaction information and other details to determine their credit-worthiness and approved loans to them through partners.
The company was aiming to become one of the largest players in India's space through Mi Credit and Mi Pay, according to the head of the company. He said that India was the biggest market for Mi Credit.
Facebook and other giants have entered India's digital loan market. According to the Boston consulting group, digital lending will be worth $1 trillion by the year 2025.
Jain said last year that the company was looking to bring gold loans, credit line cards and insurance to the South Asian market.
At a time when India's central bank has proposed stringent rules surrounding lending in India, mandating what all data they can access on a customer's phone and broader disclosures about the terms of their loans, it's not clear why the financial services offerings in the country were discontinued by
The Indian government agencies have been scrutinizing the company for a long time. The Indian Enforcement Directorate seized the bank accounts of the company after they were found to have sent $725 million to three foreign entities in the guise of royalties.
The executives of the company faced threats of physical violence during their investigation with the ED, according to a previous report.
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