The Reserve Bank of India has published guidelines that it intends to enforce for digital lending firms, recommending more transparency and control to customers as the South Asian nation’s central bank moves to take further steps to crack down on sketchy practices and creditors.
The guidelines, released Wednesday (PDF), spell out who all can lend to borrowers in India, what all data they can glean from them, and mandates expanding the disclosure requirements in a move that can rattle many fintech startups in the world’s second largest internet market.
Lenders will not be permitted to increase a customer’s credit limit without obtaining their consent and will be required to disclose the annual loan rate in explicit terms. Digital lending apps will also be required to take prior expli …