Centre lifts ban on PayU's LazyPay, Kissht, KreditBee lending apps

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has lifted the ban on some digital lending apps like PayU's buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) service LazyPay, Kissht, KreditBee and others, after it blocked nearly 138 gambling apps and 94 loan apps over "Chinese linkage" concerns.

The IT Ministry was recently instructed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to ban such apps, which operate through a third party link. Sources said that all these apps were found violating Section 69 of the IT Act and contained materials which were deemed as threat to India's sovereignty and integrity.

In a statement, Kissht said that the ban on its website and app had been lifted. "The government has shown unrelenting support in ensuring that credible and fully compliant apps such as Kissht continue to work towards greater financial inclusivity in the country. We have served more than 8 million Indians since 2017 and look forward to serving many millions more in the years forward," said the fintech startup. The digital lending apps said that the domain Aptoide in the list issued by MeiTY is a clear instance of "impersonation" and has no affiliation to them. KreditBee said in a statement that Aptoide is a third-party app, with which we have no formal or informal partnership.

"We are speculating that it's a proxy app on Aptoide, and investigating this further. Blocking of the Aptoide link is a favourable outcome for us," KreditBee had said in an earlier statement. (IANS)