Digital Lending: Association roots for enhanced data protection : The Standard

The Digital Lenders Association of Kenya (DLAK), has thrown its weight behind steps towards regulating the industry. The discourse it says should focus primarily on data privacy, business and consumer protection, as well as reporting requirements. According to the body, consumers’ privacy protection and empowering users with better control and visibility over their personal information is crucial to set an appropriate course for further development of the industry. Ethical guidelines on gathering and using customer data or collecting debts in a customer-friendly manner have already been incorporated among the association’s members in the put-into-effect Code of Conduct. “Every customer has a Constitutional right to privacy. Digital lenders must incorporate this integral fact into their policies and processes and protect consumers from unnecessarily revealing personal information,’’ said DLAK spokesperson Kevin Mutiso. Key to this protection DLAK says, would be to institutionalise reporting to credit reference bureaus as the formal channel where borrower history is shared in a legal manner which will further open up access to credit for many unbanked low-income populations. Visible credit data points will also play a big role in guiding ethical debt collection practices to protect consumers from rogue and abusive debt collectors.

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“We strongly support the idea of developing a common approach to credit data for all lenders whether they are banks, microfinance institutions, digital or not. This will enhance financial inclusion and will increase customer protection furthermore,’’ Mutiso said.

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Digital Lenders Association of Kenya