Google asks loan apps to display link to partner bank, NBFC: Report

Google also said that the digital lending apps that fail to comply with the rules, will be deleted from the Google Play Store

After a series of meetings with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Google has asked the loan disbursal apps and credit aggregators on Google Play Store to display a link to the partner bank or the Non-Banking Finance Corporation (NBFC), according to a report by Economic Times (ET). 

"For apps that remain non-compliant with the requirements past the deadline provided, as is done for any policy non-compliance, we have been taking necessary enforcement action as part of our ongoing policy compliance sweeps, including removal of apps from the Play Store," ET quoted a Google official as saying. 

Google issued the policy on September 5 and gave the compliance deadline of September 19. It further said that the apps that fail to comply with the rules, will be deleted from the Google Play Store. 

The centre has been putting pressure on Google, among other platforms, to make the digital finance ecosystem more transparent. 

With the new changes, the apps will display the live link to the page of partner banks and NBFCs. The customers will be able to verify the connection by going to their pages. Also, the website of the partner banks will display the names of apps that are connected to them. 

The rules are expected to bring down the menace of lending apps that defraud customers in lieu of offering instant credit. 

On September 9, the RBI also released a whitelist on the loan apps that are allowed to operate in India. It was done at the request of the finance ministry. 

According to Google, all the apps offering instant loans must connect customers with third-party lenders and must mention details such as the minimum and maximum time for repayment, interest rates and other costs in the metadata, the ET report stated.