Winning Bizness Desk
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has taken a major decision on digital lending companies and has directed to provide complete information to the borrower about the recovery agents who will be appointed to recover the loans from the digital lending banks. RBI has taken this step after receiving many complaints from recovery agents regarding loan recovery. RBI has issued a FAQ on guidelines related to digital lending in which RBI has said that if the loan defaults and a recovery agent is appointed to recover from the borrower, the digital lending companies should provide all the information from the phone number to the recovery agent before contacting the recovery agent. All the information of the recovery agent should be given through email and SMS.
Borrowers should be informed in advance
The RBI in its guidelines said that while sanctioning loans, digital lending companies will provide borrowers with the name of an authorized recovery agent appointed on the panel. Borrowers should be informed in advance that the respective recovery agents will contact the customer in case of non-repayment of the loan. In recent times, there have been several cases of digital loan companies from extorting customers to malpractice by recovery agents. These recovery agents harass the customers in such a way that many customers have complained that they are in trouble due to stress. In its guidelines, the RBI has said that in case of default, registered institutions can recover the loan through physical interface, in cash, only if necessary.
Must appoint a Grievance Officer
RBI has also issued some other guidelines regarding digital lending. It states that the lending service provider must appoint a Grievance Officer. Earlier RBI had issued some directives to curb harassment of borrowers by recovery agents. In it, the RBI said that the recovery agents should not threaten or harass their borrowers while doing debt recovery work, and also should not make untimely phone calls for debt recovery, and the time limit for calling the borrowers on the phone for the purpose of recovery has been given and the banks should contact the borrowers only within this time limit.
