The fintech industry has seen tremendous growth in the country in the last couple of years and Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog, on Friday said the country has established itself on the global stage as a vibrant fintech hub.
He attributed the fintech growth story to the Digital India initiative. “The first requirement that had to be addressed was that of a digital identity system with a built-in authentication mechanism and with the development of the Aadhaar, we had the first building block of the FinTech ecosystem ready,” he said.
This was followed by shifting the emphasis in the digital infrastructure layer to peer-to-peer transfer of money, he said, lauding the initiative United Payments Interface (UPI), which recorded over 3.5 billion transactions by October 2021.
“We adopted a collaborative approach for UPI, which has allowed the private sector to build apps on top of the underlying digital infrastructure to provide payment services. This has allowed a whole ecosystem of payments startups to flourish,” he said at FTX 2021 by Razorpay.
Kant explained that the fintech ecosystem can now focus on lending for both consumers and MSME-based. At the same time, more traditional financial services such as insurance, personal finance, and gold lending have also come under the fintech radar.
“There are over 2100 fintech companies in India, out of which more than 67% have been set up in the last five years. The fintech industry has a cumulative funding of over $27.6 billion and is expected to be valued at over $150 billion by 2025,” he said.
He added that the role of the government is going to be key, not from the regulatory standpoint, but also to work on ensuring that critical enabling support is provided. Whether it is broadband infrastructure to enhance Internet access in rural areas or digital literacy and financial programs, the government is eager to help, he said.
He reiterated that India has a clear shot at cementing a position in the global landscape through our regulatory sandboxes and ‘an agile and responsive approach to policies’.
https://m.economictimes.com/small-biz/sme-sector/fintech-industry-to-be-valued-at-over-150-billion-by-2025-niti-aayogs-amitabh-kant/amp_articleshow/88203627.cms
