The points of concern during the meeting included 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.
The deliberations on legal, procedural & technical aspects of the issue led to multiple conclusions which included:
- RBI will prepare a “Whitelist” of all the legal apps and MeitY will ensure that only these “Whitelist” Apps are hosted on App Stores.
- RBI will monitor the ‘mule/rented’ accounts that may be used for money laundering and to review/cancel dormant NBFCs to avoid their misuse.
- RBI will ensure that registration of payment aggregators be completed within a timeframe and no un-registered payment aggregator be allowed to function after that.
- MCA will identify shell companies and de-register them to prevent their misuse.
- Steps should be taken to increase cyber awareness for customers, bank employees, law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders.
- All Ministries/Agencies to take all possible actions to prevent operations of such illegal loan apps.
“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,” stated a press release.
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.
