Skip to main content

Chinese influence, loan-collection practices reasons for India’s crackdown on lending apps

India’s push to ban over 90 lending apps has sent shockwaves to the fintech industry as many scramble to understand why they have been impacted. The IT Ministry’s move is reportedly aimed at protecting the nation’s integrity and curb China’s influence in the South Asian market, the state-owned broadcaster Prasar Bharti said on Sunday.

In meetings with fintech associations on Tuesday, officials from the IT Ministry and influential think tank Niti Aayog offered broader explanations about the decision.

The IT Ministry is concerned about the historic or current presence of Chinese investors on the cap tables of some lending apps in India, the officials said, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Another concern is the reports of cybercrimes that are linked to China. The officials said the Ministry of Home Affairs has received reports of cybercrimes where Chinese firms have access to some Indian lending apps through APIs, which they are using to store Indian consumers’ data outside of the country, the source said.

India’s Enforcement Directorate, the country’s anti-money laundering force, has identified criminal proceeds of over $255 million, the Ministry of Finance said Tuesday in a statement. “Illegal” loan apps were used to generate and acquire laundered capital, it added.

The ban – which seeks to crackdown on over 232 apps, more than half of which offer gambling and betting services – was initially understood to only impact Chinese players. But the crackdown on PayU’s LazyPay, fintech Kissht, Indiabulls Home Loans left the industry scrambling to find their own compliances efforts.

The list, yet to be publicly published but a copy of which was seen by TechCrunch, also includes third-party versions of Ola’s Avail Finance, KreditBee, TrueBalance and MPokket.

The officials said on Tuesday that some apps are also getting impacted because of their sketchy loan-collection practices and customer services, according to the source, addressing a longstanding pain point of Indian consumers.

February’s move adds to the Indian government and regulator’s growing scrutiny of Indian fintech startups that have been asked to make a series of major changes to their business practices in the past two years.

India has blocked over 350 apps with links to China in recent years amid clashes at the border that escalated tensions between the neighbor nations. New Delhi banned Tencent’s Xriver, Garena’s Free Fire, NetEase’s Onmyoji Arena and Astracraft and 50 more apps with apparent links to China early last year.

The Indian government also banned dozens of apps including ByteDance’s TikTok, Xiaomi’s Community and Video Call apps and Alibaba Group’s UC Browser and UC News in mid-2020.

New Delhi has never publicly said that it’s taking actions on apps from any particular country.

Chinese influence, loan-collection practices reasons for India’s crackdown on lending apps by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch



source https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/08/china-influence-debt-collection-reasons-for-india-crackdown-on-lending-apps/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Silent Revolution of On-Device AI: Why the Cloud Is No Longer King

Introduction For years, artificial intelligence has meant one thing: the cloud. Whether you’re asking ChatGPT a question, editing a photo with AI tools, or getting recommendations on Netflix — those decisions happen on distant servers, not your device. But that’s changing. Thanks to major advances in silicon, model compression, and memory architecture, AI is quietly migrating from giant data centres to the palm of your hand. Your phone, your laptop, your smartwatch — all are becoming AI engines in their own right. It’s a shift that redefines not just how AI works, but who controls it, how private it is, and what it can do for you. This article explores the rise of on-device AI — how it works, why it matters, and why the cloud’s days as the centre of the AI universe might be numbered. What Is On-Device AI? On-device AI refers to machine learning models that run locally on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or edge device — without needing constant access to the cloud. In practi...
1 comment
Read more

Apple’s AI Push: Everything We Know About Apple Intelligence So Far

Apple’s WWDC 2025 confirmed what many suspected: Apple is finally making a serious leap into artificial intelligence. Dubbed “Apple Intelligence,” the suite of AI-powered tools, enhancements, and integrations marks the company’s biggest software evolution in a decade. But unlike competitors racing to plug AI into everything, Apple is taking a slower, more deliberate approach — one rooted in privacy, on-device processing, and ecosystem synergy. If you’re wondering what Apple Intelligence actually is, how it works, and what it means for your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you’re in the right place. This article breaks it all down.   What Is Apple Intelligence? Let’s get the terminology clear first. Apple Intelligence isn’t a product — it’s a platform. It’s not just a chatbot. It’s a system-wide integration of generative AI, machine learning, and personal context awareness, embedded across Apple’s OS platforms. Think of it as a foundational AI layer stitched into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and m...
Post a Comment
Read more

Billionaire clothing dynasty heiress launches Everybody & Everyone to make fashion sustainable

Veronica Chou’s family has made its fortune at the forefront of the fast fashion business through investments in companies like Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger . But now, the heiress to an estimated $2.1 billion fortune is launching her own company, Everybody & Everyone , to prove that the fashion industry can be both environmentally sustainable and profitable. There’s no argument about the negative impacts of the fashion industry on the environment. The textiles industry primarily uses non-renewable resources — on the order of 98 million tons per year. That includes the oil to make synthetic fibers, fertilizers to grow cotton, and toxic chemicals to dye, treat, and produce the textiles used to make clothes. The greenhouse gas footprint from textiles production was roughly 1.2 billion tons of CO2 equivalent in 2015 — more than all international flights and maritime shipments combined (and a lot of those maritime shipments and international flights were hauling clothes). The lit...
Post a Comment
Read more