Slice Gets RBI's In-Principle Nod For Prepaid Payments Instrument
For now, Slice has chosen to not restart its prepaid card product suspended earlier this year.
Fintech player Slice has received an in-principle nod from the Reserve Bank of India to start issuing prepaid payment instruments on its own, according to two people in the know.
The approval depends on an external audit, which will be ordered by the regulator, the people said on the condition of anonymity. Slice also has to meet certain conditions set by the RBI, they said.
In anticipation of a full-fledged relaunch, Slice has started working on a pilot programme for a prepaid card product.
This PPI product will primarily be marketed to teenagers between the ages of 15 to 18, according to one of the people mentioned earlier. The card will have a monthly spending limit of Rs 10,000 in line with RBI's guidelines for minimum-KYC prepaid instruments.
The regulator also requires minimum-KYC PPIs to be converted into full-KYC PPIs within a period of 24 months from the date of issuance, according to the guidelines.
While Slice paused issuing fresh prepaid cards in September, it resumed issuance in November.
The company stopped issuing credit on such cards owing to the RBI's strictures around prepaid cards. These cards were being issued in partnership with SBM Bank.
The fintech's new plans to issue PPIs of it own also dovetails into the firm's neo-banking ambitions, according to the person mentioned earlier.
A spokesperson for Slice declined to comment. Queries emailed to the RBI on Friday remained unanswered.
Slice is one of the few fintech firms impacted by the RBI's norms on adding funds to a prepaid account. The regulator's master directions said that PPI issuers may allow loading or reloading of prepaid instruments by "cash, debit to a bank account, credit and debit cards, prepaid instruments (as permitted from time to time) and other prepaid instruments issued by regulated entities..."
According to data available with the RBI, there are 37 non-bank PPI issuers in the market. These include Amazon Pay, Bajaj Finance, Ebix Payment Services, Manappuram Finance, Ola Financial Services, and One Mobikwik.