About this episode

The episode discusses the impact of smartphone lending practices in India and the recent regulatory changes by the RBI.

Naresh drives for Rapido. When his phone died, so did his income — for seven days, until he could borrow enough to replace it. Until 2024, India's biggest consumer lenders had turned that exact vulnerability into a recovery tool. Miss an EMI, lose your phone. It worked so well that smartphone lending grew from 1% to nearly 40% of consumer borrowing in three years. Then the RBI banned it. Lending collapsed by 80%. Delinquencies rose. Rejection rates hit 50%. Now the tool is coming back. This time with guardrails. The question is whether they're enough. *We want to get to know you a little better. Tell us what you think about Daybreak here . Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

People in this episode

Host: The Ken

Topics covered

• smartphone lending
• consumer borrowing
• financial recovery tools
• RBI regulations
• delinquency rates

Keywords

• smartphone EMI
• consumer lenders
• financial vulnerability
• lending collapse
• RBI ban

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Rapido, RBI

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