Google faces pressure in India to help curb illegal lending apps

Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google has been asked by the Indian government and the central bank to introduce more stringent checks to help curb the use of illegal digital lending applications in India, according to sources.

Even though Google doesn’t fall under the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ambit, the U.S. tech giant has been called several times in the last few months to meetings by the central bank and the Indian government and urged to introduce tougher checks and balances that can help in weeding out such apps, according to four sources.

Indian regulators have already asked lenders to step up checks against illegal lending apps, which became popular during the pandemic. Regulators seek to control the proliferation of such apps that engage in unscrupulous activities such as charging excessive interest rates and fees or in recovery practices which are not authorised by the central bank or violate money laundering and other government guidelines.

Google said that last year it revised its Play Store developer program policy for financial services apps, including requiring additional requirements for personal loan apps in India effective September 2021.

« We have removed over 2,000 personal loan apps targeting India from the Play Store for violation of the Play policy requirements, » a Google spokesperson said, adding that such steps are taken if its policies are violated.

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