Xiaomi shuts financial services business

CHINESE smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp has shut down its financial services business in India, four years after its launch, a Xiaomi India spokesperson said on Friday (28).

‘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,' the company spokesperson said.

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.

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

Xiaomi recently pulled its Mi Credit, which connects smartphone users with lending firms for quick loans, and Mi Pay apps from the local Play Store and its own app store, TechCrunch reported earlier on Friday.

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 $676m worth of Xiaomi's assets, alleging illegal foreign remittances.