One Card founders and Uni Cards NBFC licence applications face roadblocks from RBI

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Another ‘buy now pay later’ startup, Uni Cards, is also understood to have applied for an NBFC licence from the RBI, but the same is believed to have not gone through yet either, this person added. “Both licence applications have been ‘returned’, a person briefed on the matter said. 'Returned' in regulatory parlance typically means that the application has not been fully rejected, but has been sent back to the applicant to be sent afresh.

The founders of FPL Technologies, which runs the co-branded credit card product OneCard, were trying to acquire an NBFC which was up for sale, people in the know said. OneCard was started by ICICI Bank veterans Anurag Sinha, Rupesh Kumar and Vibhav Hathi. The founders are looking to get the lending licence in their own name.

While the deal got finalised between the two parties, the application to the central bank for clearance has been stuck for more than six months, ET has learnt. “The founders of OneCard had applied for the acquisition in their own name, but the deal has not received a go-ahead from the regulator,” said one of the persons in the know. The other person told ET that the application has not been ‘rejected’, but the management of the NBFC might have to apply afresh.

If this deal does not go through, OneCard founders will have to scout for another NBFC that is available for sale and start the process all over again, he added. ET wrote in July that OneCard, Wint Wealth and a clutch of other fintechs were vying for an NBFC licence. For a regulated entity (an NBFC in this case) to get acquired, it requires clearances from the sector regulator (RBI).