China’s influence, loan collection practices are the reason why India is cracking down on lending applications • TechCrunch

of India push to ban more than 90 loan apps has bewildered the industry as many people try to figure out why they are affected. The move by the IT ministry is supposed to protect the nation’s integrity and limit China’s influence in the South Asian market, the state broadcaster said on Sunday.

During meetings with fintech associations on Tuesday, officials from the IT ministry and influential consulting organization Niti Aayog offered broader explanations for the decision.

The IT ministry is concerned about the previous or current presence of Chinese investors on the limited board of some loan applications in India, officials said, according to a source familiar with the matter. This.

Another concern is China-related cybercrime reports. Officials said the Home Office had received reports of cybercrime in which Chinese companies gained access to several Indian lending applications through APIs they were using to store data. data of Indian consumers outside the country, the source said.

India’s Finance Ministry said on Tuesday in a statement that India’s Directorate General of Enforcement, the country’s anti-money-laundering force, had identified more than $255 million in proceeds of crime. It added that “illegal” lending applications were used to generate and obtain money laundering capital.

The ban – which sought to crack down on more than 232 apps, more than half of which offer gambling and betting services – was initially understood to affect only Chinese players. But PayU’s LazyPay crackdown, Kissht fintech, Indiabulls Home Loans leaving the industry struggling to figure out their own compliance efforts.

The list also includes third-party versions of Ola’s Avail Finance, KreditBee, TrueBalance, and MPokket.

Officials said on Tuesday that some apps are also being affected because sketchy debt collection method and customer services, according to the source, solve the long-standing pain of Indian consumers.

India has blocked more than 350 apps with links to China in recent years amid border clashes that escalated tensions between neighboring countries. New Delhi banned Tencent’s Xriver, Garena’s Free Fire, NetEase and Astracraft’s Onmyoji Arena, and 50 other apps with clear links to China early last year.

The Government of India also ban dozens of apps including ByteDance’s TikTok, Xiaomi’s Video Calls and Community apps, and Alibaba Group’s UC Browser and UC News by mid-2020.

New Delhi has never publicly said that it is taking actions against apps from any particular country.