Xiaomi shuts down financial services business in India, says report

Smartphone company Xiaomi has shut its financial services in India. The company’s Mi Pay app, which allowed users to make bill payments and money transfers, is no longer listed among the recognized third-party Unified Payments Interface (UPI) apps on the National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) website.

“As part of the annual strategic assessment activity and as a response to enhanced focus on our core business services, we closed the Mi Financial Services in March 2022. In a short span of 4 years, we were able to connect and support thousands of customers. We are working with our partners and supporting our consumers during this process,” the company spokesperson told Tech Crunch that broke the news first on Friday stating that company had quietly discontinued its financial businesses in India. It reported that the company has shut its Mi Credit service that connects smartphone users with lending firms for quick loans, and Mi Pay apps from the local Play Store and its own app



store.

The NPCI –– an industry body that oversees India’s state-backed peer-to-peer payments network, popularly called UPI –– declined to comment.

In India, Xiaomi’s strongest market outside of China, the company has been subject to government probes for allegedly dodging tax regulators. In April, India’s federal financial crime agency froze $676 million worth of Xiaomi’s assets, alleging the company made illegal remittances to foreign entities by passing them off as royalty payments.

The Chinese smartphone group, which denies any wrongdoing, has said the action “effectively halted” its operations in its key Indian market.

Many Chinese companies have struggled to do business in India due to political tensions following a border clash in 2020.

India has cited security concerns in banning more than 300 Chinese apps since then, including popular ones such as TikTok, and also tightened rules for Chinese companies investing in India.