RBI Directs Bajaj Finance To Stop Sanction, Disbursal Of Loans With Immediate Effect

The RBI asked Bajaj Finance to stop sanction and disbursal of loans under its two lending products 'eCOM' and 'Insta EMI Card'

Reserve Bank of India

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday directed Bajaj Finance to stop sanction and disbursal of loans under its two lending products 'eCOM' and 'Insta EMI Card', with immediate effect. The central bank in a statement on Wednesday said, "This action is necessitated due to non-adherence of the company to the extant provisions of Digital lending guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India, particularly non-issuance of Key Fact Statements to the borrowers under these two lending products and the deficiencies in the Key Fact Statements issued in respect of other digital loans sanctioned by the company."

These supervisory restrictions will be reviewed after the rectification of the said deficiencies to the satisfaction of the RBI, it added.

Shares of Bajaj Finance dropped 1.84 per cent to Rs 7,223.95 apiece on the BSE on Wednesday.

Last month, the RBI imposed a penalty of Rs 5.39 crore on Paytm Payments Bank Ltd for non-compliance with certain provisions, including Know Your Customer (KYC) norms. The central bank also found non-compliance with certain provisions related to 'RBI Guidelines for Licensing of Payments Banks', 'Cyber security framework in banks' and 'Securing mobile banking applications including UPI ecosystem'. A special scrutiny from KYC/AML (Anti Money Laundering) perspective of the bank was conducted and a comprehensive system audit of the bank was conducted by auditors identified by RBI, according to an official statement. After examination of the reports, RBI in the statement said it found that Paytm Payments Bank failed to identify beneficial owner in respect of entities onboarded for providing payout services.

It was also revealed that the bank did not monitor payout transactions and carry out risk profiling of entities availing payout services, RBI added. Further, the central bank said Paytm Payments Bank breached the regulatory ceiling of end of the day balance in certain customer advance accounts availing payout services.