UK financial super app Curve unveils bold new card design

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vailable in 30 markets and now in its fifth year of operation, customer numbers growth has appeared to be less than stellar at Curve, currently around 3 million. But it kicks off 2022 with an impressive new card design and is also eyeing up the growing BNPL segment via its Flex product.

Curve, the financial super app which combines users’ debit, credit and loyalty cards into one, easy-to-use smart card, has unveiled a new card. Specifically, it features a bold, updated design, to showcase the firm’s goal to help people take control of their money.

The global fintech is replacing all bank cards with the new design. The card redesign signifies an evolution in the Curve card branding since it launched with a blue card in 2016.

The symbolic grid design of the new card has been inspired by cubism art, a movement which brings different perspectives of an object together in one image. Representing how Curve brings the fragmented pieces of users’ financial life together in one place, each block represents a different card in one’s wallet, a different element of the personal financial ecosystem, all connected in one single card.

The new card also features a notch on one end to make it more accessible for the blind and visually impaired. The notch allows users with visual impairments to quickly recognise which way to tap their cards and withdraw cash.

Shachar Bialick, Founder and CEO of Curve, says: “Curve is evolving and the time was right for us to update our card design. Colour is the first thing our brain registers, so naturally, colour was a key element for us. It’s a new dawn for Curve. We’ve helped over three million customers take control of their money and now we’re in an expansion phase. We wanted our new card design to reflect the bold advancements we’ve made to help empower people with their finances, and our card has been designed with this in mind.”

In the fourth quarter last year, Curve launched its Curve Flex product to target the growing BNPL segment.

In particular, the product gives users greater flexibility to manage cash flow and reduce borrowing costs.

Flex enables Curve customers to go back in time and convert past payments from up to a year ago, into 3, 6, 9, and 12 instalment loans. In other words, it simplifies and unifies credit.

Curve Flex builds on Curve’s patented and trademarked Go Back in Time technology to let customers convert almost any purchase made on any card linked to the Curve platform in the past 12-months into an instalment plan. All the customer has to do is swipe to pay later.

Curve says that its Flex product is better than any existing BNPL solution on the market, as it is not restricted to specific merchants, accounts, cards, or products. It brings control back to the customer and is another step in Curve’s mission to become the super app for money.

Whether a customer wants to split a retail purchase, online order, household bill, or simply has an unexpected need for cash, they only need to swipe a transaction and select the number of instalments.

The transaction is then refunded in full almost immediately, giving customers convenience and control over their money. Notably, Curve will avoid the claim that the growing use of BNPL type products threatens a rise in unaffordable consumer lending not tracked by the credit reference agencies.

Curve will share new and historic lending data with all of the UK’s main credit reference agencies in a fair, clear and consistent way. If all BNPL issuers did likewise, there might not be the degree of pressure being applied to bring BNPL under the oversight of the FCA.