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(GIST OF YOJANA) Fintech Beyond Boundaries

[April-2022]

Fintech Beyond Boundaries

Introduction:

India is one of the largest and fastest-growing fintech markets in the world with more than 2,100’ Fintechs and is the third largest fintech ecosystem in line after the US and China. India has a fintech adoption rate of 87 per cent, which is the highest in the world with the global average at around 64 per cent.
The Government has demonstrated to the world a unique model of Public-Private Partnership by building a strong public infrastructure in the India Stack- that facilitates and enables private sector innovation. The India Stack is based on a four-pronged approach.

Biometric identity in the form of Aadhaar for identification;
Getting everyone a bank account through Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and building financial inclusion;
Building scalable platform(s) to transfer money [Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Unified Payment Interface (UPI), Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS).
Allowing banks and fintechs also to access platforms like UPI, Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) & DigiLocker to innovate.

What is a Fintech Company?

Fintech companies integrate technologies (like AI, blockchain and data science) into traditional financial sectors to make them safer, faster and more efficient. Fintech is one of the fastest-growing tech sectors, with companies innovating in almost every area of finance; from payments and loans to credit scoring and stock trading.

Digital Public Infrastructure:

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) solutions can improve the lives of people around
the world by enabling digital inclusion. Successful governments have been able to harness these digital tools to address urgent challenges facing nations. Countries that had a comprehensive and operational DPI before the pandemic were able to build a coherent and rapid response to the virus.
Digital public goods are helping DPI reach a global scale. The beauty of digital public goods, i.e., opensource software, open data, open AI models, open standards, etc., is that anyone, anywhere, can contribute to it and use them.
DPI must be inclusive, protect the privacy and security of citizens, and be governed by regulatory frameworks that ensure accountability and transparency in their implementation. It must be built to enable governments to collaborate with the private sector and promote innovation on top of the foundational layers to create new value out of it. This is essential for ensuring that citizens get access to a range of services like healthcare, insurance, financing, and other services.

Fintech Beyond Boundaries:

The concept of “Fintech Beyond Boundaries” was pioneered by “InFinity Forum”, a flagship financial technology and global thought leadership event from 3 December 2021 and witnessed participation of the United Kingdom, Indonesia, and South Africa as partner countries to the event.

The Forum focused on three key themes

(i) “FinTech beyond boundaries” with governments and businesses focusing beyond the geographical boundaries in the development of global stack to promote financial inclusiveness,

(ii) “FinTech beyond Finance by having convergence with emerging areas such as Space Tech, Green Tech, and Agri Tech to drive sustainable development, and

(iii) “FinTech Beyond Next” with focus on how Quantum Computing could impact the nature of Fintech industry in the future and promote new opportunities.

Fintechs solve problems that straddle across the different financial sector domains namely Banking, Capital Markets, Insurance, Funds, etc. As a unified regulator for the IFSCs, IFSCA provides a unique opportunity to fintechs to craft solutions for Open banking. Open Insurance, Open Investment eventually leading to an Open Finance Ecosystem that augurs well for the Open Data Economy of the future. Truly, it is a brave new world that is open and beyond boundaries for fintechs.