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MeitY ban on loan apps
The Indian government issued urgent and emergency orders to restrict 138 betting and gambling applications and 94 loan-providing apps. Players including PayU’s LazyPay, Kissht, and numerous more loan apps were impacted by the prohibition.
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MeitY ban loan apps including non-Chinese Apps: Key Points
- A number of well-known fintechs may have their operations suspended as a result of the Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology (MeitY) including them on a list of digital lenders whose websites and applications are to be blocked in India.
- PayU’s LazyPay and Kissht, which is backed by Vertex Growth and Brunei Investment, are among the lenders that are impacted by this most recent government directive concerning digital lending apps in India.
- Recently, MeitY blacklisted 94 loan applications and 138 betting apps that had ties to China and were suspected of participating in money laundering. It is still unknown whether online lenders like Kissht and LazyPay are included on the same list.
- On February 7, representatives from the Ministry of Electronics and Information & Technology (MeitY), the Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment (FACE), and the founders and CEOs of numerous digital lending companies will meet to discuss their positions and ask for restrictions to be lifted.
- Online lending platforms have recently been under scrutiny from the government, law enforcement, and internet service providers like Google, which hosts apps on its Play Store.
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MeitY ban on loan apps: Impacted Apps
These include, among others, the buy-now-pay-later service LazyPay from financial giant PayU. LazyPay was previously removed from the Google Play Store in January 2021 due to RBI regulations being broken. The Ministry of Home Affairs, which acts based on a variety of sources of intelligence, including local police cyber cell divisions, usually provides advice to the IT ministry before issuing a ban order to internet service providers and telecom firms.
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