MobiKwik and buy now pay later’s consent crisis in India

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Editor's note: H, a banker of 12 years, had carefully curated his credit profile with just one credit card and no other ongoing personal liabilities to get the best deals for a loan when he would eventually purchase his dream home. However, on 7 March, he got an email from the government’s Central Know Your Customer Registry stating that his KYC record had been updated by IDFC First Bank. He glanced through the email and ignored it at first. But curiosity, and a nagging feeling that something was wrong, made him go back and read it again. He had not banked with IDFC First Bank ever, so why then would the bank tinker with his CKYC record? On checking his credit report, he got a shock when he saw an active personal loan of Rs 3,000 since September 2021 issued by IDFC First Bank. “My reaction was that this was an obvious error,” he says. He wrote a letter to the bank’s redressal officer. While waiting for a response, he started thinking about any potential action that could have unknowingly triggered a …