Govt Starts Offering Free Marketing to Frivolous Loan Apps

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has been at the heels of digital loan apps alongside FIA and even Google due to all the surrounding controversy on the topic. SECP and PTA were earlier planning to raise awareness against said apps by sending SMS to the public, warning against the dangers of unlicensed apps but also informing them about approved apps. Our channel checks have confirmed that the regulators have started sending such SMS to the general public as of today. For now, these messages are advising caution against sharing private data. “Personal information should not be shared. Get loans exclusively from SECP and PTA-approved apps,” one of the texts read with the link to a document that had names of the approved loan apps. Here’s one in Urdu: The issue with this approach is that it will also provide free marketing to all frivolous loan apps. The link in the text essentially promotes regulator-approved apps that citizens can use to get loans. Approved apps include unknowns like SmartQarza and Paisaayar, while publicly acclaimed apps such as Abhi and Muawin are still under evaluation. Barwaqt has been prohibited from disbursing any loans for the time being. The notorious app is well known for tapping into private data such as phone gallery, contacts, app activities, and other personal info. The screenshot below has been taken from Barwaqt’s Google Play Store page. As we reported in a previous article, even licensed apps that have been approved by SECP take a suspicious amount of data from your devices. The most popular ones including Barwaqt (operated by SECP-licensed NBFC Seedcred Financial), JazzCash, Easypaisa, and others need a list of invasive permissions before they function properly. Take a look at the screenshot below. Realistically, Easypaisa and JazzCash should have no business with your device’s microphone, media gallery, app activity, location, and much more, but here we are. Other SECP-registered apps including EasyLoan and Muawin are also guilty of the same practices. These apps have over a million downloads altogether. However, now the situation is most likely set to get even worse. While the awareness campaign will indeed warn the public about the dangers of these apps, it will also inform them about their existence, exposing a lot more people to them. Instead, simply having more restrictions on these apps should fair a lot better in this case. According to the PTA spokesperson, the story has been passed on to the relevant department for comment. They will respond as soon as an update is received.