PUNJAB CHIEF SECRETARY ASKS RBI TO PREPARE AND SHARE WHITELIST OF LEGAL APPS OFFERING LOANS

Chandigarh, September 19:

            Punjab Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua has chaired the 18th meeting of the State Level Coordination Committee (SLCC) on Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and Unincorporated Bodies (UIBs). The meeting was convened by Mr. M. K. Mall, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Chandigarh.

            During the meeting, regulatory and policy initiatives taken by RBI, awareness programmes on protection of interest of investors/depositors and similar other issues were discussed. The Chief Secretary impressed upon greater usage of the banning of unregulated deposit schemes act, 2019 by giving wide publicity so that all the citizens in Punjab be made aware about said act and instructed the law enforcement agencies to comply with the provisions of this act as it is a comprehensive mechanism to curb the unregulated deposit schemes to protect the interest of depositors.

            Further, while discussing recommendations of the working group on digital lending, Chief Secretary expressed concern on increasing instances of illegal loan apps offering loans to vulnerable group of people. On this issue, Regional Director, RBI apprised about the meeting held under the Chairpersonship of Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs wherein RBI has been asked to prepare a “Whitelist” of all the legal Apps and MeitY will ensure that only these “Whitelist” Apps are hosted on app stores. The Chief Secretary asked RBI to prepare and share Whitelist of such legal Apps at the earliest, so that the same may also be given wide coverage in order to protect the general public from falling prey to any illegal loan apps.

            Regional Director, RBI emphasised on the need for better co-ordination between the regulators and law enforcement agencies to prevent unscrupulous entities from duping the general public of their hard-earned money. He also apprised the forum about the usefulness of the ‘Sachet portal’ of RBI which facilitates lodging of complaints by general public as also the sharing of any relevant information by members of public and is intended to help in addressing the problem of unauthorised collection of deposits more effectively.

            Smt. Garima Singh, Secretary Finance & Director Institutional Finance and Banking, Punjab, Mr. Sarabjit Singh, Additional Inspector General of Police and senior officers from RBI, SEBI, ROC, ICAI etc. also participated in the meeting.