Every lending app in India is meant to be findable in one place: the RBI's directory of digital lending apps, where each regulated lender must list the apps it lends through. Three apps that lent to one salaried borrower in 2026 are not in it under any lender: Swiftpaisa, salarybaba and Rupee4u.
The money was real, and so are the companies that paid it. His bank statement shows each loan paid into his account by an RBI-registered company: Jupiter Management Services Private Limited for Swiftpaisa, Transactree Technologies Private Limited for salarybaba, and Mayurdeep Ornaments Private Limited for Rupee4u. None of the three companies has any app listed in the directory.
He is the borrower at the centre of Oquilia's investigation 84 Loans, 30 Lenders, Seven Months: a salaried engineer who took 84 short-term loans from 30 RBI-registered companies between March and October 2026, almost all of them to repay each other.
What the rule says
"An NBFC shall report all DLAs deployed / joined by them, whether their own or those of the LSPs," on the RBI's reporting portal, and update the list "as and when additional DLA (s) are deployed" (Credit Facilities Directions, para 18(1) and (2)). A DLA is a digital lending app; an LSP, a lending service provider. The RBI publishes the reports automatically and does not verify them (para 18(5)), but the directory is the regulator's one public list where a borrower can look up an app and find the lender, and the grievance officer, behind it.
Oquilia searched every entry in the directory as published on 24 October 2026, 20,275 in all, by app name and by app link. None matches Swiftpaisa, salarybaba or Rupee4u.
Swiftpaisa: four loans from Jupiter Management Services
Swiftpaisa lent to him four times between 9 July and 30 September, ₹1.42 lakh in all, every loan paid from Jupiter Management Services' account. The loans were repayable in 17 to 33 days, at annual rates of 574% to 729% in his records. The first, ₹32,634 on 9 July, was repayable at ₹43,708 seventeen days later. On 30 September he paid ₹54,331 to close his third Swiftpaisa loan, and Jupiter Management Services lent him ₹40,572 again the same day.
Jupiter Management Services is registered with the RBI as a non-banking financial company under the RBI's New Delhi regional office. It has filed no app in the directory.
salarybaba: a loan paid by a peer-to-peer platform
On 29 September salarybaba lent him ₹51,156, repayable 31 days later at ₹76,560: an annual rate of 585% in his records. The payment in his bank statement came from Transactree Technologies, which the RBI has registered as a peer-to-peer lending platform (NBFC-P2P), trading as Lendbox. A platform of this kind does not lend its own money; it matches borrowers with lenders, under a separate set of RBI directions. The bank entry names Transactree and describes the payment as lender funding. Whether salarybaba is Transactree's own app, or another company's that uses its platform, the directory does not say.
In May 2025 the RBI fined Transactree ₹40 lakh. Its order found that the company had routed money disbursed and collected on its platform through a "co-lending escrow account", against the RBI's rules for moving funds; had not disclosed borrowers' credit assessment and risk profile to prospective lenders; and had disbursed loans "without the specific approval of individual lenders" (RBI press release, 23 May 2025). The RBI said the penalty was not meant to pronounce on the validity of any transaction with the company's customers.
Rupee4u: a loan from a company called Mayurdeep Ornaments
On 30 September Rupee4u lent him ₹26,814, repayable 31 days later at ₹38,910: 531% a year in his records. The money came from Mayurdeep Ornaments Private Limited, which, despite its name, is registered with the RBI as a non-banking financial company under the RBI's Kolkata regional office. The day before, his statement shows a ₹1 credit from the same company, labelled as a bank account verification. It has filed no app in the directory.
Why it matters
An app missing from the directory is not, on that fact alone, an unlicensed lender: in all three cases here, the money came from a registered company. But a borrower who looks these apps up in the RBI's directory, as the RBI and Oquilia both advise, finds nothing: no lender, no grievance officer, no address to complain to. That is the gap the directory was built to close.
Before borrowing, look the app up in the RBI's directory of digital lending apps (on rbi.org.in, Citizen's Corner, "DLAs deployed by Regulated Entities") and check the lender at sachet.rbi.org.in. If the app is not listed, ask it in writing which RBI-registered company is the lender, and get the Key Facts Statement before you accept.
What the rules say
Nothing in the RBI's rules stops a lender lending again on the day it is repaid, or lending to one person through several apps at once. A lender must collect a borrower's age, occupation and income "with a view to assessing the borrower's creditworthiness" and keep it on record (Credit Facilities Directions, para 8(1)); the rules do not tell it to refuse a borrower who already owes other lenders. The RBI does not cap interest rates, though it says rates "beyond a certain level may be seen to be excessive" (Responsible Business Conduct Directions, para 25). No fee missing from a loan's Key Facts Statement may be charged without the borrower's explicit consent (para 29(5)), and the lender stays "fully responsible and liable" for the company running its app (Credit Facilities Directions, para 6(7)). The investigation sets out the rules, and what they leave out, in full.
If you borrow through one of these apps
- Ask for your Key Facts Statement for every loan, and check each rupee you are asked to pay against it.
- Write to the grievance officer. None of these three apps has a grievance officer listed in the RBI's directory. Write to the company named on the payment in your bank statement, and ask which RBI-registered company is your lender.
- Complain to the RBI at cms.rbi.org.in if there is no reply within 30 days, or the reply does not settle it.
- Report threats, or messages to your employer, colleagues or contacts, at cybercrime.gov.in or on 1930.
- Stop borrowing from one app to repay another. Each new loan adds a new deduction and a new due date. Oquilia's loan-harassment help page explains your rights in plain language.
How this was reported
This report draws on the records behind Oquilia's investigation 84 Loans, 30 Lenders, Seven Months: the borrower's loan-by-loan record, which he compiled from the lenders' app screens; his HDFC Bank statement for 30 March to 30 September 2026; and the RBI's public registers. Each loan's amounts, dates and rate are from his records. Each payment described as appearing in his bank statement was matched to the rupee and the date. The apps listed under each company are from the RBI's directory of digital lending apps as published on 24 October 2026, and registrations from the RBI's list of NBFCs. Oquilia has not seen the Key Facts Statements for these loans. The borrower's name, employer and city are withheld at his request.
Corrections: if any figure, date or description in this report is wrong, send the correcting document to editor@oquilia.com and we will correct it.
The lender files
- The investigation: 84 loans, 30 lenders, seven months
- Ampire Finance: 13 loans, and six apps in two days
- Naman Finlease: 12 loans through six apps, at up to 951% a year
- FundoBaba: the same ₹60,000 loan, seven times
- Duniya Finance: loans from one company, repayments to another
- Salary4Sure: repaid and lent again the same day
Frequently asked questions
Is Swiftpaisa listed with the RBI?
Not as of 24 October 2026. No lender lists Swiftpaisa in the RBI's directory of digital lending apps. In this borrower's case, Swiftpaisa's four loans were paid by Jupiter Management Services Private Limited, a non-banking financial company registered with the RBI, which has filed no app in the directory.
Who is the lender behind salarybaba?
This borrower's salarybaba loan, on 29 September 2026, was paid by Transactree Technologies Private Limited, which the RBI has registered as a peer-to-peer lending platform (NBFC-P2P), trading as Lendbox. salarybaba does not appear in the RBI's directory of digital lending apps under any lender.
Who is the lender behind Rupee4u?
This borrower's Rupee4u loan, on 30 September 2026, was paid by Mayurdeep Ornaments Private Limited, a non-banking financial company registered with the RBI under its Kolkata regional office. Rupee4u does not appear in the RBI's directory of digital lending apps under any lender.
How do I check whether a loan app is listed with the RBI?
Open the RBI's directory of digital lending apps, on rbi.org.in under Citizen's Corner, 'DLAs deployed by Regulated Entities', and search for the app's name. The listing shows the lender, the company running the app and the grievance officer. Then check the lender at sachet.rbi.org.in. Being listed is not an RBI endorsement; it tells you who is responsible.
Source
The borrower's loan records; his HDFC Bank statement, 30 March to 30 September 2026; RBI list of NBFCs; RBI directory of digital lending apps (24 October 2026)