Google is revising its "Personal Loans policy" to specify that applications that offer or enable personal loans may not access user-confidential information. For personal loan applications that expose users to misleading or hazardous financial products or services, Google said it is introducing additional requirements which will be in force from May 31.
“This policy applies to apps which offer loans directly, lead generators, and those who connect consumers with third-party lenders," said Google in a statement.
Additional requirements are required to apply for personal loans in India Kenya, Pakistan, Nigeria, Indonesia, and the Philippines. For India, Google has urged personal loan apps to complete the Personal Loan App Declaration for India and provide necessary documentation to support their declaration for example if the company is licensed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to provide personal loans, then it must submit a copy of the license for review.
“If you are not directly engaged in money lending activities and are only providing a platform to facilitate money lending by registered Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) or banks to users, you will need to accurately reflect this in the declaration. In addition, the names of all registered NBFCs and banks must be prominently disclosed in your app’s description," said Google.
“The existing personal loans on payment companies like Google Pay and more are fantastic for a credit scare country like India. Over 70MM users in India can easily avail of credit on the application. Google Pay users range from income limits vary. The users need to provide KYC and all other bank details, but the problem lies elsewhere. The actual problem with providing loans/credit is the recovery mechanisms. The lenders require and have access to plenty of personal data of consumers. Therefore RBI has taken strict actions. One solution to this, and ensure that users also pay on time, not default and lenders or loan recovery mechanisms do not keep calling the users, is ensuring that it is a secured loan over a period of time. This bridges the gap between the cream of loan seekers and loan seekers that are in peril of default and/or have taken multiple loans," said Shreyansh Nahar CEO and Co-founder of Finsire.
“If your app contains or promotes financial products and services, you must comply with state and local regulations for any region or country that your app targets - for example, include specific disclosures required by local law," said Google.
Google said apps that provide personal loans, or have the primary purpose of facilitating access to personal loans (i.e., lead generators or facilitators), are prohibited from accessing sensitive data, such as photos and contacts, then the permissions prohibited are read or access external_storage, media_images, contacts, fine_location, phone_numbers and media_videos.
“Personal loan consumers require information about the quality, features, fees, repayment schedule, risks, and benefits of loan products in order to make informed decisions about whether to undertake the loan," said Google.
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