Ms. Madhabi Puri Buch, Chairperson, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) laid down some core principles that guide regulators, while delivering her keynote address at the Global Fintech Fest 2022 (GFF 2022) in Mumbai. “There are some key principles that guide a regulator. These include anonymity, transparency, financial inclusion and structural vulnerability,” she said. “There is likely to be a regulatory gap when there is something new and innovative that happens in the market. It is up to the regulator to keep pace with that. Our intention is to narrow that regulatory gap in the startup ecosystem,” Ms. Buch added.
Elaborating on inadequate disclosure to a regulator, the SEBI chairperson said: “If your business model is woven around a black box, which is not open to sunlight for disinfecting or not capable of being audited or validated, it cannot be permitted.”
GFF2022 is being organised and presented by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, Reserve Bank of India, International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), National Payments Council of India, the Payments Council of India (PCI) and the Fintech Convergence Council (FCC). GFF 2022 is being held between September 20 and 22, 2022 at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai. Pre-event festivities began virtually on September 19, 2022. This is the third edition of the Global Fintech Fest, and the first one where domain experts are participating from across the globe in-person and virtually.
Setup in 2017 as a fintech committee, Fintech Convergence Council was later converted into an independent council with its independent governing board, with over 70 members. The FCC represents various players in the fintech, banking, financial services, and technology space. The FCC works towards the penetration of financial services with the aim of financial inclusion and moving towards a digitally empowered country. It creates opportunities for collaboration and convergence among various players in the financial services domain.
In another session at the GFF 2022 Mr. Amitabh Chaudhry, CEO, Axis Bank highlighted the six major trends in the future of banking. “The first one is the emergence of customer-specific banks. Second is, as distribution becomes more and more digital, as more avenues to reach customers open, products and customization will become very important. The third trend will be the compounding effect of the Indian stack. The fourth trend will be saturation i.e. offering the services in bit sizes and how banks can make money out of it. The fifth trend would be hyper-personalization. And the sixth trend is the emergence of partnerships,” Mr. Chaudhry said.
Talking about innovation in banking, he added, “New technologies (like Blockchain and Metaverse) are providing refined solutions for the customer at minimum prices. These technologies reduce cost and the future of banking is moving in that direction.”
GFF 2022 is being supported by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), National Investment Promotion & Facilitation Agency (Invest India), Startup India, Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) and ONDC. Special Partners of GFF 2022 are World Bank Group, United Nations Capital Development Fund, BIS Innovation Hub, KNOMAD, Better Than Cash Alliance and International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The Payments Council of India (PCI) was formed in 2013 catering to the needs of the digital payment industry. The Council was formed inter-alia to represent the various regulated non-banking payment industry players, to address and help resolve various industry level issues and barriers which require discussion and action.
