Explained: Why Google removed over 2000 loan apps from India Play Store

As digital lending fraud incidents continue to rise, Google has removed over 2000 loan apps from its India Play Store. These credit disbursement apps were offloaded between January to June this year. The crackdown was based on leads and inputs received, violation of policy, lack of disclosures, and misinformation.

The search giant is in the process of introducing stricter policies for listing loan offering apps on the Play Store, said Saikat Mitra, a senior director and the head of trust and safety at Google in the Asia Pacific.

There have been multiple reports of harrasment and fraud from these loan apps which disburse 'quick loans' some without approval and also deploy unethical recovery processes for the same.

As per the findings of an RBI Working Group, released in November 2021, as many as 600 out of 1,100 lending apps currently available for Indian Android users across 80 application stores are illegal apps.

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