Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Chairs Meeting On “Illegal Loan Apps”

The customers need for digital loan is ever increasing nowadays however with an increase in demand of digital loans there is rise in numbers of illegal digital lending platforms. There are many reason one can download a digital lending application and fraudsters take advantage of that by charging higher interest rates, dupe borrowers or even take personal details of the borrower and use it unwisely.

This issue is trending from past few months and caught an eye of the government. Recently a meeting held by Finance Minister Nirmala.

The meeting was attended by the Finance Secretary, Ministry of Finance; Secretary, Economic Affairs; Secretary, Revenue, & Corporate Affairs (Addl. Charge); Secretary, Financial Services; Secretary, Electronics & Information technology; Deputy Governor, RBI; and Executive Director, RBI.

The Finance Minister expressed concern on increasing instances of Illegal Loan Apps offering loans/micro credits, especially to vulnerable & low-income group people at exorbitantly high interest rates and processing/hidden charges, and predatory recovery practices involving blackmailing, criminal intimidation etc. Smt. Sitharaman also noted the possibility of money laundering, tax evasions, breach/privacy of data, and misuse of unregulated payment aggregators, shell companies, defunct NBFCs etc. for perpetrating such actions.