The checker allows a borrower to enter the name of a lending app and searches it against the Reserve Bank of India’s public directory of Digital Lending Apps deployed by Regulated Entities, which contained 1,024 apps as of September 1, 2026, as well as more than 9,200 RBI-registered entities.
When a match is found, the tool identifies the regulated entity behind the app, provides details of its grievance redressal officer and shows the escalation route to the RBI Ombudsman. When no match is found, the checker does not label the app as fake or illegal. Instead, it provides borrowers with a verification checklist and official reporting channels.
The distinction is significant because Google Play’s India policy requires personal loan apps to appear in the RBI’s DLA directory before they can be distributed. An app missing from the directory should therefore not be offering personal loans on the store.
GoCredit said the tool was designed in response to the widespread circulation of lists of allegedly banned loan apps on Indian social media. However, there is no official public list of banned apps because blocking orders issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act are confidential by law.
In a written reply to Parliament in July 2026, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology stated that 87 illegal loan lending applications had been blocked to date. The names covered by those orders are not published.
“Every viral ‘fake loan app list’ is somebody’s guess, and borrowers are making decisions about their money based on those guesses. The verifiable question isn’t which apps are banned — it’s which regulated entity is behind the app in front of you. RBI publishes that. We made it searchable,” said Anupam Acharya, Co-founder and CEO, GoCredit.
GoCredit said borrowers can independently verify a loan app by first searching its name in the RBI’s DLA directory. Every legitimate digital lending app in India is reported to the RBI by the bank, NBFC or housing finance company that deploys it.
Borrowers should also check the app’s About or Compliance screen. RBI rules require a lending app to identify the regulated entity behind it, and the absence of a named lender is a red flag.
The loan agreement or sanction letter should then be checked because it identifies the legal lender at the top, which can be different from the app’s brand name.
GoCredit also advised borrowers never to pay an advance processing fee. According to the company, registered lenders deduct charges from the disbursed amount rather than collecting fees through UPI before disbursal.
Where an app does not check out, unauthorised lending apps can be reported to the RBI at sachet.rbi.org.in, or through the national cybercrime portal at cybercrime.gov.in and helpline 1930.
The checker deliberately avoids describing any lending app as “RBI-approved”. The RBI compiles its DLA directory using information submitted by regulated entities through its CIMS portal and publishes the directory without further validation, according to the regulator. A listing therefore represents a disclosure by a regulated entity and not an endorsement by the RBI. GoCredit said the checker reflects this distinction in the language used for every verdict.
The tool is based on the reporting framework established under the RBI’s Digital Lending Directions, under which regulated entities must report the digital lending apps they deploy. GoCredit has converted the resulting directory into a searchable format that allows borrowers to search using the name displayed on their phone and access the associated grievance contact.
Alongside the checker, GoCredit has published the complete list of RBI-registered loan apps in India at gocredit.money/loan-app/list, with a dedicated safety page for each app identifying the regulated entity or entities that deploy it.
GoCredit operates an AI Loan Agent that matches borrowers with lenders through a single consent-based application instead of repeated applications across multiple instant loan apps, each of which triggers a credit bureau inquiry. The company said the safety checker extends the same premise to the stage before borrowing by helping establish who the actual lender is.
The loan app safety checker is free, requires no signup and is available now at gocredit.money/loan-app. Its underlying directory data is refreshed from the RBI’s published source.
GoCredit is a personal loan platform operated by Vijayalakshmi Technology Infinity NKB Private Limited. It offers an AI Loan Agent that matches borrowers with RBI-registered lending partners through a single consent-based application. Its website is gocredit.money.
The sources referenced by GoCredit include the Reserve Bank of India’s public directory of Digital Lending Apps deployed by Regulated Entities in the RBI Citizen’s Corner, accessed on September 1, 2026; Press Information Bureau Release ID 2287195, covering the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s reply to the Rajya Sabha dated July 21, 2026; and the Google Play Developer Policy requirements for personal loan apps in India.
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