The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday warned shoppers against the questionable digital income lending entities that guarantee loans in seconds at exorbitant prices of interest, and then use muscle powers to recover dues.
The Central Bank in a statement stated, there have been reports about folks/tiny corporations falling prey to developing quantity of unauthorised digital lending platforms/Mobile Apps on promises of receiving loans in speedy and hassle-no cost manner. These reports also refer to excessive prices of interest and added hidden charges getting demanded from borrowers adoption of unacceptable and higher-handed recovery strategies and misuse of agreements to access information on the mobile phones of the borrowers.
“Members of public are hereby cautioned not to fall prey to such unscrupulous activities and verify the antecedents of the company/ firm offering loans online or through mobile apps,” RBI stated.
Moreover, shoppers must never ever share copies of KYC documents with unidentified persons, unverified/unauthorised Apps and must report such Apps/Bank Account information and facts related with the Apps to concerned law enforcement agencies or use Sachet portal (https://sachet.rbi.org.in) to file an on-line complaint.
Legitimate public lending activities can be undertaken by Banks, Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) registered with RBI and other entities who are regulated by the State Governments below statutory provisions, such as the income lending acts of the concerned states, it stated.
Reserve Bank has also mandated that digital lending platforms which are employed on behalf of Banks and NBFCs must disclose name of the Bank(s) or NBFC(s) upfront to the buyers.