NEW DELHI: The Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in its meeting on Wednesday decided to launch a uniform know-your-customer (KYC) norms to verify customers across financial sector to prevent illegal lending based on online applications.
“The FSDC discussed various issues related to formulation of strategy for implementing the decisions of the FSDC and the Union Budget announcements. These, inter alia, included: prescribing uniform KYC norms, inter-usability of KYC records across the financial sector, and simplification and digitalisation of the KYC process…,” the Finance Ministry said in its statement.
The government hasn’t yet disclosed the timeline for these measures. The panel addressed strategies to curb negative impacts of unlawful online lending apps, which charged exorbitant interest rates and engaged in aggressive debt recovery tactics, mainly prevalent during COVID-19 pandemic. The panel discussed kickstarting fund-raising by social enterprises through social stock exchanges.
The FSDC considered the domestic and global macro-financial situation and emphasised that the members need to maintain constant vigilance.