New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) The government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have launched various initiatives, from time to time, to protect citizens from exploitation by unauthorised digital loan apps, according to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The government has been constantly engaging with the RBI and other concerned regulators and stakeholders to curb the operations of unauthorised digital loan apps in the country.

The Central Bank has operationalised a directory ‘Digital Lending Apps (DLAs)’ on its website, consisting of all DLAs deployed by regulated entities (REs) of RBI.

The directory aims to aid the customers in verifying the claim of a DLA’s association with a RE.

“In the case of unauthorised digital loan apps being identified, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is empowered to issue directions for blocking of information for public access under Section 69A of Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 after following the due process as provided in the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009,” said Sitharaman in a reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

The Central Bank has issued Reserve Bank of India (Digital Lending) Directions, 2025 on May 8, 2025.

These directions have detailed provision regarding recovery, data privacy, and customer grievance redressal mechanisms which are mandatory for the REs, the Lending Service Providers (LSPs) engaged by them and the Digital Lending Apps (DLAs).

The government is proactively engaging with the major internet intermediaries and messaging platforms to review the operations of unauthorised loan apps.

Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been proactively analysing the digital lending apps. In order to facilitate the citizens to report cyber incidents including illegal loan apps, MHA has launched a National Cybercrime Reporting Portal as well as a National Cybercrime Helpline number “1930”.

The banks, through the public facing platform ‘SACHET’ portal and the inter-regulatory State Level Coordination Committee (SLCC). facilitate the citizens for lodging of any complaints against specific entity related to deposit/collection of money illegally, informed Finance Minister.

—IANS

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