MUMBAI, Nov 19 (NNN-PTI) – India’s central bank called for legislation by the country’s federal government, to prevent illegal lending activities in the digital lending app segment, as per its panel report on digital lending released yesterday.
“The thrust of the report has been on enhancing customer protection and making the digital lending ecosystem safe and sound, while encouraging innovation,” the report, released by the Reserve Bank of India, said.
According to the report, there were 1,100 lending apps for Indian Android users, across 80 application stores, and over 600 apps were found to be illegal loans apps, while the central bank’s portal received 2,562 related consumer complaints from Jan, 2020 to Mar, 2021.
The expert panel was constituted in Jan, following concerns over customer protection and business conduct issues, as a fallout of rising digital lending activities in India. It has invited public comments to the report by Dec 31.
Apart from verification of digital lending apps, the report also called for setting up Self-Regulatory Organisation, covering participants in the digital lending ecosystem.– NNN-PTI
