Google has stated that it has removed more than 2000 personal loan apps from Play Store in India since January. The company has also stated that it has been working on making changes regarding personal loans. This news comes amid the crackdown on predatory personal loan apps in India.
The apps have been banned after consulting with local authorities, and the apps were targeting Indian users. Saikat Mitra, Senior Director and Head of Trust and Safety at Google Asia-Pacific said at an event held in New Delhi.
He also mentioned that the company will bring new safeguards against predatory apps in the coming weeks. He said, “We are working on a policy change which will make the relationship between a loan app and the banking partner more explicit. The new update will make the requirement and the relationship between how the two are connected clearer.”
Last day, we talked about how the Government of India is going to ban more than 300 personal loan apps in India. These predatory loan apps have been wreaking havoc in India. They have been under the radar of various law enforcement agencies in the country for their unethical recovery methods, exorbitant interest rates, money laundering, using hawala routes to send money to China and more.
The Government of India is yet to impose the aforementioned ban on these apps. And with this new news about Google banning 2000 apps already, it is clear that the number of apps that need to be banned could be much more than 300 and these apps usually come back in different names in the Play Store.
This needs to be stopped
Two days back, a couple and their two children were found dead at their home, which was suspected to be linked to online loan apps. Last week, a man hanged himself in Hyderabad in connection with instant loan apps. We hear about news such as this every other week.
Google needs to impose better filtering of such personal apps. The Android maker has mentioned that some filters are in place, but it is not enough.
Not only Google but the law authorities and RBI should also take more stringent steps to ensure the common man doesn't get trapped in the jaws of these predatory apps.
