Google’s latest changes to its personal loans policy will restrict mobile lenders from accessing users’ photos and contacts starting from May 31, 2023.
This is in addition to the previous updates requiring loan providers in Nigeria and Kenya to offer proof of regulatory compliance.
“It will make it more difficult for lenders to carry out KYC because customers are familiar with uploading photos when asked for KYC documents… On the loan recipient side, this might mean that fewer people will be able to access loans on Android phones except such customers are quickly able to adapt with whatever alternative methods the lenders design,” Said Babatunde Akin-Moses, founder and CEO of Sycamore, a mobile lending app.
In 2021, Kenyan MPs added a clause allowing Central Bank to revoke the licenses of digital lenders that did not respect customers’ confidentiality.
About the Author
