Mumbai: Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Wednesday exhorted the fledgling fintech ecosystem to focus on the underserved sections of the society to deepen financial inclusion.
Speaking at the annual Global Fintech Fest here, Malhotra accepted that serving the “privileged” will be a lucrative business, but urged the smaller companies to focus on the underserved.
“Build for inclusion. While there may be higher profits to be made by deepening access to the haves and the privileged. Prioritise building systems to expand financial services to the unaccessed, the unreached and the unserved segments of society,” he told a packed hall comprising stakeholders of the fintech ecosystem.
Malhotra also asked the fintech companies to design products and services that are easy to use, accessible for all, with assistive technologies which will ensure that the vulnerable groups such as the senior citizens, individuals with limited digital literacy and the specially-abled are not left behind.
There is a need for Indian fintechs to “prioritise” trust and compliance, Malhotra said, adding that they should embed strong data protection, transparency and safeguards for consumers in every offering of theirs.
The number of Indian fintechs has grown to 10,000 and these companies have collectively raised over USD 40 billion over the last decade, the career bureaucrat-turned-central banker said.
Stating that tech can be a force multiplier for sustainable economic development, Malhotra appreciated fintechs for delivering financial services at population scale and at affordable costs.
He also asked the fintech ecosystem to focus on extending credit to make best use of the available infrastructure created over the last few years and ensure that the small businesses and individuals get credit.
Meanwhile, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched a slew of initiatives on Wednesday, including AI-based UPI HELP powered by its Small Language Model (SLM) that will assist in payments, mandates, and dispute resolution.
It also launched an IoT (internet of things) payments with UPI for enabling transactions directly from connected devices such as cars, smart TVs, and wearables, and ‘banking connect’, which is an interoperable net banking solution.
The body also introduced ‘UPI Reserve Pay’ which will allow users to securely block and manage credit limits for specific purposes across merchant and UPI apps.