FM Nirmala Sitharaman Meets Fintechs, Startups; Asks Regulators To Hold Monthly Meetings – News18

Amid the Paytm Payments Bank crisis, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday chaired a meeting with start-up and fintech ecosystem entities on Tuesday in New Delhi. During the deliberations, Sitharaman exhorted the regulators, including RBI, that they may hold meetings via virtual mode once a month to discuss any questions/queries/concerns of the startups and fintech companies.

“The interaction with the Start-up and Fintech ecosystem partners was organised to enable free exchange of ideas to bolster and scale up operations to facilitate global competitiveness by enabling growth in the fintech sector. India has approximately 10,244 Fintech entities, which is 3rd largest in the world,” according to an official statement.

The Union finance minister noted the rapid growth of the start-up and fintech sector of India, especially in the last decade, and welcomed suggestions from the FinTech leaders to achieve greater Ease of Doing Business and Ease of Living for consumers.

The meeting was also attended by MoS Finance Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad; DFS Secretary Vivek Joshi; DPIIT Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh; MeitY Secretary S Krishnan; RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar; and founders/ co-founders/ MDs/ CEOs/ heads of various start-ups and fintech companies. Various associations such as Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment (FACE), Digital Lenders’ Association of India (DLAI), Payment Council of India (PCI), and Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) also attended the meeting.

During the deliberations, Sitharaman exhorted the regulators, including RBI, that they may hold meetings via virtual mode once a month to discuss any questions/queries/concerns of the startups and fintech companies.

During the meeting, it was emphasised that innovative solutions by the Fintech companies are essential to the financial services sector while ensuring strict compliance with regulations.

It was noted that Aadhaar, UPI, API Setu among others have acted as enablers for Start Up and FinTech organisations and simplified incorporation of companies, recognition of P2P Lenders as Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), regulatory sandbox, Fintech repository, SRO Framework for Fintech, etc have facilitated the startup eco-system in India.

The startup and fintech entities appreciated the processes, regulations and efficacy of GIFT City and the IFSCA and noted that they are creating new opportunities for the startups and fintechs.

The number of Start-ups in India have grown significantly from just over 300 in 2016 to over 1.17 lakh in 2023 as recognised by DPIIT, generating more than 12.4 lakh jobs, and 47% of the Start-ups have at least one Women Director. Additionally, India is the home to over 10,000 Fintech companies working in diverse sectors and segments. The Union Finance Minister also noted that India’s Fintech ecosystem is the 3rd largest in the world and growing at 14% CAGR and that RBI recently floated a draft Framework for recognition of Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO) for the Fintech sector for stakeholder’s consultation.

The following key action points emerged from the deliberations:

• DFS to conduct a day-long workshop with Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) wherein fintech ecosystem partners can voice their issues/concerns.
• DPIIT mentioned that new patent examiners have been added which will reduce the turn-around-time of patent applications.
• Cost of lending/funding for critical areas including priority sector should be rationalised.
• Simplification and digitisation of KYC across all fintech segments.
• RBI, DPIIT and MoF to look at the change of ownership holding/control of listed fintech companies to enable them to be in-sync with regulatory compliance.
• Issues pertaining to cybercrime will be suitably addressed in the new Digital India Act.