New Delhi, Aug 25 : Google on Thursday declared that it has removed more than 2,000 of the controversial personal loan programs out of the Play Store in India in the period between January and June after having consulted with the police agencies.The news was released in the context of the Indian government is planning to ban 300 of these personal loan apps that are predatory in the near future.
The majority of apps that the government is planning to stop have been traced back to China and are connected to money laundering.
At a conference in New Delhi, Saikat Mitra who is the Senior Director and Director of Trust and Safety at Google Asia-Pacific, informed that the blocked apps targeted Indian users.
Mitra has also revealed that the company will introduce more modifications in the Play Store policy to curb the growth of such apps that are a threat to the user.
Google has now made it mandatory for personal loan applications in India to submit additional evidence of the eligibility requirements.
The criteria for eligibility is a the copy of their license issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and a an affirmation that they aren’t directly involved in the business of lending money and only provide an opportunity for money lending from licensed Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) or banks to customers.
“If you’re authorized by the RBI to offer personal loans, then you must provide the duplicate of your license for evaluation,” the company said in an article on its blog.
“If you aren’t directly involved in the business of lending money and only provide an online platform that facilitates money lending from authorized Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) or banks to customers and customers, you must precisely declare the fact in the declaration.” the report added.
In June the police of Odisha’s Economic Offence Wing asked Google to remove 45 fake loan apps’ from the Play Store which were suspected of employing illegal practices to extort money from borrowers.
Google has been taking down loans in the country from time to time , following guidelines by the RBI to look into suspicious fintech-related applications.
na/
