In accordance with its mandate of developing capital and financial markets, the SECP continuously reviews and reforms its policies, dovetailing its efforts towards promoting ease of doing business through technological advancements, expanding financial inclusion, lowering entry barriers, and transparently enforcing laws to protect people’s rights.
SECP regulates Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) which are authorized to undertake lending. Some of these NBFCs have also ventured into personal loans through digital Apps. A list of SECP approved Apps is available on the SECP’s website. Other than these, all Apps available on various play/app stores are unauthorized and illegal.
To combat the menace of illegal Apps SECP has been actively engaged with Google, which on April 05th, 2023 announced its Personal Loan App Policy for Pakistan, effective from May 31, 2023. Pakistan is the 6th country in the world, after India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nigeria and Kenya, for which Google has introduced additional requirements for digital lending Apps.
The policy contains check and balances to avoid listing illegal Apps on Play store and sets stringent requirement to minimize access to personal data of the consumer. Google removed 84 illegal lending Apps reported by the SECP from its Play Store.
In December 2022, the SECP introduced requirements for NBFCs, engaged in digital lending, to protect the interests of borrowers.
