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ARTICLE · 23 MAY 2023

The Digital Lending App Ban Rigmarole

Ikigai Law
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On 5 February, a tweet from a public broadcaster announcing the blocking of 94 digital lending apps raised a furore within the fintech industry. In the following week, lending apps...

IndiaTechnology
Ikigai Law
Ikigai Law
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A post-mortem on MeitY's mass blocking of digital lending apps.

On 5 February, a tweet from a public broadcaster announcing the blocking of 94 digital lending apps raised a furore within the fintech industry. In the following week, lending apps were banned and unbanned – both without much clarity.

A quick backstory: In September 2022, the RBI released rules to regulate digital lending. Around the same time, the government met with the RBI to discuss how to tackle rogue loan apps. It was decided that the RBI will prepare a whitelist of legal loan apps and MeitY would ensure only these apps feature on app stores.

Now, onto 5 February 2023, and the week that followed.

The ban: MeitY asked Google to block 94 digital lending apps (including some prominent ones) from the Play Store. The blocking order was issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act). The affected fintech companies were at sea – they reportedly received no notice from

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