Sordid saga of Cashbean loan app and its connection with Opera browser

Mounika took a loan of Rs 2.70 lakh and paid Rs 2.50 lakh but she could not bear the harassment at the hands of Cashbean staff and committed suicide as Cashbean started calling Mounika’s friends and family. Opera owned other Android based lending apps such as Okash and OPesa active in Kenya and Nigeria have been known for public shaming of their borrowers to recover money.

New Delhi:The Reserve Bank of India's decision to cancel the license of PC Financial Services India Private Limited, the company that operates Cashbean Mobile loan app, has put the spotlight on functioning of mobile lending business, and people behind such companies. The Cashbean Mobile is owned by a New Delhi registered company – PC Financial Services India Private Limited. Cashbean has more than one crore downloads on Google Play App store and operates out of its main office in Gurugram at the outskirts of national capital New Delhi.

The Reserve Bank has received several complaints against mobile app based lending platforms which were luring away small time borrowers in the name of providing easy loans as a large number of middle class and lower middle class have been facing difficulty due to the adverse economic impact of Covid-19 global pandemic.

Later these companies were found to be indulging in unfair trade practices such as charging usurious interest rates, opaque method of calculating interest rates and other charges and use of high-handed tactics for recovery of loans. PC Financial Services India Private Limited is no ordinary company. It is owned by Norwegian-Chinese internet browser giant Opera group which offers Opera internet browsers and other financial services such as offering loans through mobile apps in countries like India, Nigeria and Kenya.

Who runs PC Financial Services in India?

According to the company website, it has three directors - Raghuvir Gokhar, Shishir Shah and Vaibhav Mishra. While Raghuvir Gokhar is Chartered Accountant, having worked with GE Capital, Bank of America and Clix Capital, Shishir Shah has worked with leading Indian banks such as ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank in various capacities handling online payment operations and online payment products management.

The third director Vaibhar Mishra is a banker with over two decades experience. He is responsible for revenue growth of the company across retail banking and fintect segments. Though the company website lists three directors – Raghuvir Gokhar (also acts as CEO of the company), Shishir Shah and Vaibhav Mishra, the ministry of corporate affairs’ website lists only two directors Shishir Shah and Vaibhav Mishra.

Cashbean’s Opera connection and ED probe

PC Financial Services was established in July 1995 and according to ED officials it got the NBFC license in 2002 and its ownership moved to Chinese owned Opera Group in 2018 after it got the RBI license. "PCFS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Oplay Digital Services, SA de CV, Mexico, which is in turn a subsidiary of Tenspot Pesa Ltd, Hong Kong, which is owned by Opera Ltd (Cayman Islands) and Wisdom Connection I Holding Inc (Cayman Islands), which are ultimately beneficially owned by Chinese national Zhou Yahui,” ED had said in a statement last year.

By December last year, officials of Enforcement Directorate (ED), India’s apex anti-money laundering agency, have seized PC Financial Services bank accounts and assets worth Rs 288 crore as they probed the company for violation of the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

Harassment of borrowers

This week Reserve Bank cancelled the certificate of registration of PC Financial Services and banned the Cashbean mobile lending app. Though the Cashbean’s website was not accessible, the website of PC Financial Services India and Cashbean App on Google Play are still operational. In addition to a probe by the Enforcement Directorate, PC Financial Services and Cashbean Mobile App attracted media attention last year when 24 year old K Mounika, a borrower from Telangana, committed suicide in December last year as she faced harassment at the hands of Cashbean recovery agents.

According to reports, an investigation by Telangana Police had revealed that Mounika had borrowed just Rs 16,832 from Cashbean on November 1 last year. However, she borrowed another Rs 22,000 from another mobile lending app called CreditBean on November 5 to repay the loan as Cashbean’s loan tenure was just 7 days and due date was November 7.

According to reports, Mounika took a loan of Rs 2.70 lakh and paid Rs 2.50 lakh but she could not bear the harassment at the hands of Cashbean staff and committed suicide as Cashbean started calling Mounika’s friends and family. Opera owned other Android based lending apps such as Okash and OPesa active in Kenya and Nigeria have been known for public shaming of their borrowers to recover money.

Controversies related to Opera’s other mobile loan apps

India is not the only country where New York Stock Exchange listed Opera is facing controversies for its mobile loan application business. According to a report by Hindenburg Research, Opera’s losses in browser revenue have apparently led it to create multiple loan apps with short payment windows and interest rates of 365-876 per cent, which were in violation of new Play Store rules.

Opera operated several Android based instant personal loan apps in India, Kenya and Nigeria. While OKash and OPesa were aimed at users in Kenya, CashBean was targeted at Indian borrowers and OPay was aimed at borrowers in Nigeria. While Reserve Bank of India banned Cashbean on February 24, Kenya had cracked down several android based mobile lending apps including OKash and OPesa last year over data privacy concerns.