27 fraud insta credit lending apps banned by the government

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had received a request from the Ministry of Home Affairs for blocking 27 loan lending apps and after due process, MeitY blocked those 27 apps under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The information was shared by Minister of State (MoS) Finance Ministry, Anurag Singh Thakur in the Lok Sabha. The information was shared in response to a question on whether the government, large technology companies, and regulated digital lenders are jointly looking for a crackdown on fraud Chinese lending apps operating in India.

The RBI in a circular dated June 24, 2020, reiterated to banks and NBFCs to disclose names of digital lending platforms engaged as agents on the website while lending platforms were required to disclose upfront the name of the lending institution on whose behalf they are operating. Further, a press release was also issued on December 23, 2020, cautioning people against unauthorised digital lending platforms.

To study all aspects of digital lending activities including lending through online platforms and mobile apps, the apex bank had also constituted a Working Group on January 13, 2021. The group had to also come out with recommendations pertaining to regulatory and customer protection measures.

Hyderabad police had arrested 11 persons from Delhi, Gurgaon In December 2020, while the Cyber police arrested six others in Hyderabad for instant mobile app loan fraud. Following their footsteps,Telangana police had arrested a Chinese national HE Jian alias Mark, a native of Jiangxi in China in connection with a probe into the instant online loan apps case.

The value of the digital lending segment had jumped from $33 billion in FY15 to $150 billion in FY20 and is likely to grow to the $350-billion mark by FY23, according to Statista