Introduction: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced the establishment of the Digital India Trust Agency (DIGITA) to address the proliferation of illegal lending apps and ensure compliance within the digital lending sector.
Key Points:
- Purpose: DIGITA will serve as a crucial checkpoint to tackle illegal lending apps.
- Verification: Apps without the ‘verified’ mark from DIGITA will be deemed unauthorized for law enforcement purposes.
- Compliance: DIGITA aims to vet digital lending apps for compliance and maintain a public register of verified apps.
- Action by Google:
- The RBI provided a list of 442 digital lending apps to Google for whitelisting, leading to the removal of over 2,200 apps from the PlayStore.
- Google now enforces a policy that allows only RBI-regulated entities (REs) or their partners to publish apps on the PlayStore.
- Policy Change: This policy change was in response to requests from the RBI and the Department of Financial Services (DFS) under the Finance Ministry.
Additional Measures:
- Actions have been taken to rescue citizens involved in cyber fraud activities, particularly those ensnared in employment scams in Cambodia.
About Reserve Bank of India (RBI):
- Governor: Shaktikanta Das
- Deputy Governors: Swaminathan Janakiraman, Michael Debabrata Patra, M. Rajeshwar Rao, T. Rabi Sankar
- Establishment: April 1, 1935
- Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra