In crisis-hit Pakistan, rogue loan apps add to financial pain

Unemployed Pakistani software engineer Ali thought he had found a way to pay his overdue electricity bill when he took a small, 30-day loan from a digital lending app late last year.

The money landed in his account minutes after completing the application – a big draw of the lending apps that are spreading fast among lower-income Pakistanis grappling with an economic crisis and a dearth of accessible bank loans.

“In only 10 minutes, the Rs 15,000 ($53) that I had applied for was in my account minus the processing fee,” the 30-year-old, asking not to use his real name, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation as he sat in his brother’s garment factory in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-biggest city.