Privacy in India’s digital credit ecosystem: a systematic literature review and policy directions

This study examines India’s digital credit ecosystem, exploring the relationship between technological efficiency and user rights, particularly data privacy. It aims to identify emerging trends, key concerns, and potential regulatory and technological interventions. The PRISMA framework guided a systematic review of scholarly literature on digital credit services, data privacy, and global benchmarks. A filtered collection of 198 documents formed the final corpus for analysis. Through bibliometric analysis (inductive approach), we identified dominant research themes, while content analysis (deductive approach) classified the literature by keyword frequency related to data collection, storage, and breach impacts. The study highlights three key research themes: (1) India’s rapidly expanding digital credit ecosystem, (2) emerging financial data privacy developments, and (3) international approaches to privacy in financial services. India’s digital lending is experiencing exponential growth, driven by FinTech innovations and data integration. However, concerns persist regarding data accuracy, transparency, and privacy. Emerging technologies such as Blockchain and Federated Learning offer promising solutions to mitigate privacy risks and enhance compliance. The findings provide context-specific directions for strengthening privacy governance within India’s digital credit ecosystem. Specifically, they offer practical guidance for regulators, policymakers, financial institutions, and FinTech firms seeking to promote responsible digital lending and sustainable financial inclusion.