#OperationHaftaVasooli: BIG IMPACT! Finance Minister calls meeting to tighten noose around digital lending app frauds

Impact of Zee Business’ Operation Hafta Vasooli: In order to weed out frauds emerging from digital lending apps and platforms, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has called a meeting with officers of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Department of Financial Services (DFS) on Thursday.

The Finance Minister will be seeking status of steps taken by RBI and DFS towards ending frauds related with digital lending apps. Noteworthy, Zee Business' Operation Hafta Vasooli has extensively campaigned against unethical and fraudulent digital lending  apps. 

As per the sources, the issues likely to be on finance minister’s agenda will be chalking out steps to stop the extortionist tendencies of digital lending platforms, and the influx of Chinese money into such apps. The finance ministry is looking to put an end to such fraudulent practices, and working towards reining in such apps that operate under the guise of fintech platforms. 

Last week, the RBI had issued guidelines with regards to digital lending and asked financial institutions and banks to formulate systems in order to comply with RBI's modified digital lending norms by 30 November 2022.  

The country's central bank, in its release, had announced that its new norms pertaining to digital lending would be applicable for both new customers seeking loans and for existing customers availing fresh loans. 

RBI had also tightened digital lending norms in order to prevent entities from charging exorbitant interest rates and to curb unethical loan recovery practices.  

In an exclusive interview with Zee Business Managing Editor Anil Singhvi recently,  RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had said that in order to deal with the menace of growing digital and cyber fraud in the country, the central bank is working to raise awareness through multiple modes like television, print media, radio and voluntary organisations. Singhvi had complimented the RBI Governor on central bank’s action on lending apps after a couple of sting operations were done by Zee Business channel.