The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it has removed 33 unregistered online lending platforms (OLP) from Google’s Play Store as of end-January in its bid to curtail illegal lending activities in the country.
These OLPs have not been reported to the SEC, in violation of Memorandum Circular No. 19, Series of 2019 (SEC MC 19), or the Disclosure Requirements on Advertisements of Financing Companies and Lending Companies and Reporting of OLPs, the commission said.
“The removal of the OLPs is also in line with the SEC’s previous discussions with Google. In May 2022, Google adopted a new policy which required developers with personal loan apps targeting users in the Philippines to submit a Personal Loan App Declaration and necessary documentation before they could publish apps on Google Play Store,” the SEC added.
This led for personal loan apps operating in the Philippines without proper declaration and license attribution to be removed from Google Play Store, the SEC said.
“In the event where the submitted license, registration or declaration is no longer valid under applicable laws, the developers are required to promptly remove the app from the Google Play Store,” it also said.
The SEC said since it started its initiative to curb illegal lending activities online, it has revoked the registration of 2,084 lending and financing companies which failed to secure their required licenses from the agency. It has also canceled the license of 39 financing and lending companies due to various violations of applicable rules and regulations.
“The SEC is looking at engaging with other social media platforms for the adoption of a similar gatekeeping policy imposed by Google Philippines in the interest of customer protection,” the SEC said.
