Google removes around 2000 personal loan apps from Play Store in India due to safety reasons

Google has said that it has removed close to 2000 personal loan apps from its Play Store in India due to safety reasons. Google noted that 2000 apps account to more than half of the total apps in the lending category. The apps were removed since the beginning of the year. Google shifted its focus towards lending apps in India after the Reserve Bank of India came up with a regularity framework for banning unregulated lending activities to save the borrowers from harassment, blackmail and predatory lending.

Talking about the new Play Store guidelines, Senior Director and Head of Trust & Safety for Google Asia-Pacific Saikat Mitra said, “Supported by local research and feedback from our stakeholders, we have been updating the Google Play policies associated with personal loan apps in India.” He further added that the apps were posing a threat to the Indian users and so the company decided to remove them after consulting with the law enforcement authorities.

Mitra also revealed that apps are reviewed on Google Play Store when they are uploaded, but in the case of loan apps, a lot of criminal activities were also reported outside of the internet world. Several interns users have reported cases of harassment and blackmailing on loan repayment.

Ever since we came to know about user harm due to predatory practices adopted by some of the personal loan apps, we have been engaging with the industry and law enforcement agencies to help address these issues,” Mitra was quoted by the Business Standard as saying.

Google took cognisance of the unregulated lending apps after the RBI or Reserve Bank of India recommended a law for Banning of Unregulated Lending Activities (BULA). Mitra added that India currently does not have government certified apps. The loan apps that may not look harmful can pose a threat to the users in the real world. However, he is not in favour of a blanket ban over personal lending apps as he believes there are good apps too. Especially after the pandemic and the job losses, people do need access to credit. For every bad loan app, there are dozens of good apps,” he said.