India is seeing an explosion of non-bank digital lending apps.
In recent days, the digital lending sector has come under the scanner for coercive collection tactics, sky-high interest rates and fraudulent business practices.
On January 13th, the RBI formed a Working Group to create a regulatory framework for these online lenders.
Yesterday, Google said it had removed an undisclosed number of these lending apps from its Play Store to safeguard users.
What are some of these micro lenders accused of? Of providing small loans swiftly and with no questions asked - often with no regard to the borrower’s credit history. These loans are usually offered at exorbitant interest rates - sometimes as high as 500%!
Additionally, when borrowers install these apps, they are forced to share an abysmal amount of personal data including all their contacts, their location, gallery images etc. This data in turn is used by the apps to coerce repayments.
Click link to know more about the dark underworld of digital lending apps in India: https://transfin.in/rbi-and-google-take-action-against-digital-lending-loan-apps