Almost four days after banning websites of Indian lending apps such as Kissht and LazyPay, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has revoked its ban order on these websites.
Both lending company websites were reported unavailable on February 6 morning, after MeitY’s February 5 order which blocked 232 apps involved in unauthorised loan services, betting and gambling. This created lot of confusion for customers who were supposed to make their repayments by first week of February and were not able to pay the dues.
Post the ban, companies have sought clarification from the government and some fintech companies also met the government officials to discuss the reason for the ban.
“Around 11 lending companies met MeitY in Delhi on Wednesday to discuss the ban. Companies were asked questions about data localisation, whether they are under the regulatory ambit, their customer grievance process, and NBFC status, among other things. Post the discussion, players were asked to submit some documents in the next 3-4 hours,” a source in the know told businessline, on the condition of anonymity. The source added that post the discussion, ban revoking orders were seemingly sent to Google Play Store and internet service providers.
Commenting on this development, Ranvir Singh, Founder, Kissht, said, “We thank the Government of India and MeitY for revoking the order to block Kissht. The government has shown unrelenting support in ensuring that credible and fully compliant apps such as Kissht continue to work towards greater financial inclusivity in the country. We have served more than 8 million Indians since 2017 and look forward to serving many millions more in the years forward. Kissht continues to provide hassle-free credit with the objective of doubling our customer base in 2023.”
MeitY has also banned a number of apps impersonating certain brands like mPokket, KreditBee, Avail Finance, and True Balance was also banned by the government. These apps generally had an aptoide extension attached to them. On the blocking of these fake apps, one such company mPokket said in a statement, “The domain in the list issued by MeitY this week, mpokket.en.aptoide.com, is a clear instance of impersonation and has no affiliation with mPokket whatsoever. Aptoide is a third-party app store with which we have no official or unofficial partnership. We suspect that it may be a proxy app on Aptoide and are looking into it further. Blocking of such apps protects both the consumer and lenders. We at mPokket continue to bring the best service to our customers without any disruptions.”