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I was curious to know if this Cardless EMI product is available only to ICICI Bank customers having an ICICI Bank Credit Card who have forgotten to carry their credit card to the retailer OR even to people who do not have any account with ICICI Bank.

To seek an answer, I visited the ICICI Bank Landing Page. But couldn't find the answer.

I then sent the required SMS (CF to 5676766) to check if I was eligible for Cardless EMI. I got a reply back within a few seconds saying yes and mentioning the credit limit. Impressive! But, then, I have an account - though no ICICI Bank Credit Card - with ICICI Bank. So it was not conclusive.

I then sent the same SMS from the mobile phone of Someone I Know (SIK) who does not have any relationship with ICICI Bank. SIK got a reply back within seconds telling them to "meet sales reps at the retailer" to know eligibility. Until SIK actually visits a store, I won't have the answer to my question.  

Can any "Early Adopters" of this product throw some more light? Thanks in advance.

LOL Lanistar must have thought Fintechs Need Marketers And Lobbyists, Not Lawyers and, after reaching unicorn status, is now realizing it may need Lawyers.

Congrats Paul and best wishes for your new endeavor.

Whoa 102 Challenger Banks in UK? I didn't think there were more than 5-6:) 

I read last year that "Despite the launch of half a dozen new banks in last few years, largest legacy banks still have 77% of UK market now vs. 69% in 1999."

Makes me wonder WTF these 102 challenger banks have really achieved that we should be spending so much time and energy talking about them. 

I get all use cases of Embedded Finance except Payments.

A business has always collected money in return for its products / services. To me, doing it in cash or credit card or embedded app is a matter of detail and does not merit a separate product category called Embedded Finance.

I disagree that people can develop cognitive dissonance and abandon a purchase when they open their wallet to pull out cash or credit card. IMO, that happens in an earlier stage of the purchase journey viz. when they see the price tag.

Digital Payments like Credit Card do tend to increase Ticket Size but they do that whether they're in the form of Plastic or Mobile Wallet or Key Fob. I disagree that only Credit Card in the form of an Embedded Finance app can increase Ticket Size.

When a Bank sells Flowers, what would you call it? Embedded Horticulture? 

PS: Not joking. McKinsey actually proposed this use case as part of its Platformication strategy for the banking industry.

Nice analogy. Totally resonates with my long-held view that EU-style Open Banking is based on a questionable premise that bank customers want to unlock the value in their banking data. Innovative Fintechs Don’t Need No PSD2 Regulation

In sharp contrast, US-style Open Banking is based on the premise that bank customers want functionality that happens to need their banking data. Even without any regulatory mandate, it has been flourishing for over 10 years since MINT launched PFM 10+ years ago. Today, there are 40M users in USA of fintech apps that access banking data via Plaid, Finicity, Yodlee, et al. In contrast, despite the regulation and the hype for years, EU Open Banking has fewer than 5M users. 

After years of doing SEO for companies in a wide array of industries, in my company we tend to believe that SEO is relevant only for companies selling fairly mainstream products and services. What most snake oil SEO agencies - and there are a lot of them - conveniently forget to mention is that search volumes are negligible in many product and service categories. If nobody is Googling for your products and services, SEO is a waste of time and money because it hardly matters whether your company appears on Top 3 or First Page or Wherever on Google SERP. Which is why many unscrupulous SEO agencies never commit, at the beginning of the engagement, to the keywords on which they will get you to rank high. At the end of the engagement, they will try to hoodwink you by making a big deal of getting you to rank high on your own company name. Be warned!

When I read that Apple was approving people with subprime credit scores for its Apple Card, I joked that Apple could always lock the borrower's iPhone if they defaulted on their credit card bill. I never thought Google would say it's no laughing matter.

Also Bank locks car when driver is late on loan repayment, as I highlighted in my blog post Will You, Won't You, Will You, Won't You Get Your Blockchain App?.

Looks like Blockchain is not required for these apps.

@PeterMinev:

TY for highlighting. TBH, I stopped reading at "The ambition for Global Money is to provide our customers with one global account". If HSBC's ambition itself is so limited, I thought there's no point reading further.