New Delhi, Sep 5 (IANS): Former BharatPe Co-founder Ashneer Grover on Monday criticised the new digital lending guidelines from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), calling the norms the worst thing that has happened in digital India.

Taking to Twitter, Grover said that the new digital lending norms will discourage the fintechs from lending.

"If UPI is the best tech/regulatory innovation in the world, the RBI's Digital Lending Guidelines have to be the worst," said Grover who, along with his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, has formed a new company called Third Unicorn Private Ltd, and are set to launch a third startup.

He further tweeted: "Essentially RBI is telling Fintechs 'Bhai mat karo digital lending shending ! Banks se hoti nahi, humein samajh aati nahi, aur pen paper ki sale bhi kam hogi (don't do digital lending as banks can't manage it, we don't understand it and it will also save on the sale on pen and paper)".

The recent RBI guidelines on digital lending are aimed at creating a robust framework that safeguards interest of customers.

The framework is based on the principle that lending business can be carried out only by entities that are either regulated by the central bank or entities permitted to do so under any other law.

This has led to fintech lenders suspending their services in the country.

Last month, Uni suspended card services on its products in line with the recent RBI notification.

The startup said that is proactively suspending services Uni Pay 1/3rd Card and the Uni Pay 1/2 Card, which will impact millions of users.