Payments Council of India (PCI), the representative body of digital payment system participants in India welcomes the steps outlined to prevent operations of illegal loan apps, resulting from the meeting held on 8^th September 2022. During the meeting, the Finance Minister expressed the concerns arising out of illegal loan apps offering loans and microcredits to vulnerable/low-income groups and exploiting these groups through various illicit practices.

Vishwas Patel, PCI Chairman and Director, Infibeam Avenues, said “The overall decision taken on ‘illegal loan apps’ is highly commendable as this will save millions of innocent people falling prey to such unregistered, unregulated and illegal loan sharks as well as ensure that international fraudsters don’t get access to Indian payments systems. We highly welcome the decision by our Honourable Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman that MeitY will ensure that only whitelisted loan apps are hosted by on the various App stores.”