RBI Wants Fintech Operators To Follow Rules Of Game: Shaktikanta Das

Shaktikanta Das said the intention of the central bank is not to penalize or stifle anyone but to ensure that everyone follows traffic rules.

Warning against mushrooming of lending apps and their usurious recovery prices, the Reserve Bank said it is not interested in penalizing operators or stifling innovation but wants them to follow the rules of the game, governor Shaktikanta Das said on Tuesday.

Addressing the third edition of the global fintech summit here this evening, he said the intention of the central bank is not to penalize or stifle anyone but to ensure that everyone follows traffic rules.

The statement assumes importance in the wake of the recent incidences wherein a few people who borrowed through these apps have been forced to commit suicide and the last week's incidence of a young pregnant woman being mowed down by the recovery agents of Mahindra Finance which financed her father's tractor in Bihar.

Since the past two years, when the negative loan app incidents began to surface the central bank had made many changes in the rule book, including mandating the loan apps to upfront disclose on whose NBFC's or bank's behalf the money was being disbursed.