Introduction
The fintech space in India witnessed several developments in the month of February, with the tabling of the Union Budget ("Budget") in Parliament being the main highlight. The Budget laid out the government's vision for the fintech space and its intention to boost it, including through extension of the DigiLocker services to fintech entities to enable and encourage innovation in the sector and ensure sharing & storing of data in a secured manner. The announcement of a National Financial Information Registry for checking credit worthiness is also a welcome initiative.
The Reserve Bank of India ("RBI") continued to take active measures to provide impetus to the fintech space, by recently publishing a list of frequently asked questions ("FAQs") on the Guidelines on Digital Lending ("Digital Lending Guidelines") providing much needed clarity to industry stakeholders on several fronts including the applicability of the Digital Lending Guidelines to different businessess.1
The RBI also took swift measures to solve for and iron out the concerns for easier payments by foreign nationals in India by amending the Master Directions on Prepaid Payment Instruments ("PPI Master Directions") to enable Unified Payments Interface ("UPI") services for G20 foreign travellers in India. The positive trends in the fintech space have also continued with the linkage between India's UPI and its equivalent in Singapore, PayNow, which was announced by the Prime Ministers of the two countries, while PhonePe became the first fintech platform in India to allow cross-border UPI payments. These significant developments along with the evolving payments infrastructure and innovations coupled with 71 billion digital payment transactions and 55 million active neobank accounts, are expected to help the fintech industry scale new heights every day.2
This newsletter highlights key developments, announcements and measures as well as other developments in the Indian fintech space from February 01, 2023, to February 28, 2023.
Footnotes
1. https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/FAQView.aspx?Id=155
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