Personal and pay day loans have time and again been excused of predatory financial practices, specifically aiming their offerings to those struggling financially. In a bid to stop this India’s Central Bank is seemingly ramping up its efforts to remove loan apps from the Google Play Store.

The efforts appear to be working, but perhaps more concerning is the sheer volume of shady personal loan apps that exist on India’s Play Store. To that end, Google notes that more than 2 000 have been removed this year alone.

As reported by TechCrunch, Google’s, senior director and head of Trust and Safety at for Asia-Pacific, Saikat Mitra, highlighted the figure at an event in New Delhi this week.

Mitra adds that the aforementioned applications were removed from the marketplace over how they were targeting Indian users, with law enforcement also brought into consult on the matter.

Based on feedback from the Central Bank, Google plans to bring in some welcome policy changes in order to better safeguard app users. This follows on changes that the company implemented last year, telling personal loan lenders that they must give customers at least 60 days to make their repayments.

Added to this will be restricting access to customer bank, which is a specific directive from the Central Bank. There is also a push for greater transparency from loan apps on what interest rates they levy against users.

With India and South Africa sharing similarities from an economic landscape perspective, especially for poorer segments of society, hopefully Google is also keeping an eye on local loan apps to ensure predatory practices are curtailed.