Curve does a “180 on refunds” following the upheaval of its system in the wake of Wirecard’s collapse

The fintech totally rebuilt its refund system in less than a week following Wirecard’s collapse.

Curve, the all-your-cards-in-one fintech, last night revealed that it has gone back to an earlier iteration of its refund system following a complete overhaul last month. 

The London-based fintech had to completely rebuild its refund system after the FCA blocked Wirecard’s UK operations following the payment processor’s collapse. 

In a matter of days, Curve had given its refund system a total revamp, which saw refunds go instantly straight onto customers’ Curve Cash card, rather than waiting a few days for the payment card to be refunded. 

Before the changes, the Curve Cash card was a collection pot for the cashback points users earned when shopping with specific retailers or when other Curve cardholders sent money using Curve Send. 

Despite the mammoth effort to get back online and redesign the refund system, some Curve customers weren’t happy with the new process so, Curve has reverted back to the old way of processing refunds. 

In a blog post, Curve wrote: “When it came to rebuilding refunds after Wirecard, we moved too fast and released something that wasn’t ready.” 

“This concept hadn’t been fleshed out enough, the technology wasn’t sound enough yet, but most importantly, you weren’t happy with it.” 

A spokesperson for the fintech told AltFi that the reason Curve pursued the revamp was that it was “the easiest way unlock any cash tied up in Wirecard,” as despite announcing its migration away from the firm in April, some features hadn’t been fully moved in-house yet.  

Curve’s spokesperson also told AltFi that the fintech was still looking into the possibility of bringing back the Curve Cash refund option in the future and that if there was a problem with a refund it would still go directly back onto a user’s Curve Cash card. 

The fintech is also reportedly on the hunt for a sizeable Series C fundraise and plans on launching Curve Credit later on this year, with the aim to attract up to 300,000 UK customers in the first three years.