India Emerging As Asia's Top Fintech Hub: RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das

Das said the increased use of digital payments brought about by Covid-19 can fuel a rise in digital lending in the current decade as companies accumulate consumer data and enhance credit analytics.

India is on way to becoming Asia's top financial technology (fintech) hub with 87 per cent adoption rate as against the global average of 64 per cent, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Thursday. The fintech market in India valued at Rs 1.9 lakh crore in 2019 is expected to reach Rs 6.2 lakh crore by 2025 across diversified fields like digital payments, digital lending, peer to peer (P2P) lending, crowd funding, block chain technology, distributed ledgers technology, big data, RegTech and SupTech, he said while addressing the Times Network India Economic Conclave. "In a world where fintech companies are leading in terms of the volume of digital transactions and playing a more active role in the banking and finance industry, it is important that the commercial banks adapt to the technological changes and work in tandem with these entities so that in future they are part of the ecosystem rather than competing with fintech companies for business," said Das. "A meaningful collaboration and co-existence in providing affordable and efficient value-added services will help both the worlds." In the dynamic world of financial services, and more so after the pandemic, fintech is expected to challenge the financial sector with innovations and its exponential growth, said Das. Harnessing fintech for customer services will effectively control costs and expand the banking and non-banking businesses. Das said the increased use of digital payments brought about by Covid-19 can fuel a rise in digital lending in the current decade as companies accumulate consumer data and enhance credit analytics.