Fintech Illuminating India's Financial Landscape

Fintech firms in India are navigating the difficult fundraising winter with grit and ingenuity. Despite economic uncertainty, fintech startups continue to attract investments and prosper, demonstrating their importance in the financial technology industry.

One of the powerful panel discussions titled 'Fintech: Imperative Role Played in Indian Startup Ecosystem' consisted of a strong panel of industry experts including Alok Kumar, Co-founder and CTO, Karza Technologies; Himanshu Vyas, Head - New Business Initiatives, Enkash; Nishant Jain, CBO - Network, BharatPe; Usha Murali, CCRO, Spice Money and Prachi Pareek, Director - Payments Consulting, EY. Moderated by Vaibhav S Joshi, Co-founder, CBO, and Global Head, Ayekart Fintech, various factors such as the role of fintech in empowering and enabling the ecosystem, fintech empowering digital distribution and innovation, relevance to customer centricity, and the future of the blend of finance and technology were discussed. 

Speaking at the 3rd edition of  BW Businessworld Festival of Fintech 2023, Nishant Jain, CBO - Network, BharatPe, says, “If we talk about the startup sector as a whole, I think fintech is really there enabling and empowering each and every other sector for a lot of things, whether be payments, lending, banking, investments or insurance. Fintech overall has been empowering the entire segment.” 

Fintech, through harnessing technology to deliver innovative financial solutions, plays a critical role in empowering and enabling the ecosystem. It ehances digital payments, streamlines processes, and allows startups to access funds, eventually supporting economic growth and empowerment. Commenting along the same line, Himanshu Vyas, Head - New Business Initiatives, Enkash, states, “When we talk about the banks, regulators, and fintech, I think each of them acts as a force multiplier for the other. The fintech on the other side, their agility, sharp focus, and tech preparedness solve key aspects such as customer centricity to bring in the intuitiveness as required as we are talking about the apps that are going on very quickly. The other side of fintech is solving for distribution, reach, and adoption of the digital infrastructure. I think  it is collaboration, on the rails of what is been provided by these fintech's is something that is commendable today.”

Fintech is transforming MSMEs by enabling seamless digital distribution, encouraging innovation, and providing better consumer experiences. Fintech is enabling small businesses, generating growth, and opening up new opportunities in the digital economy with innovative technology and customised solutions. “MSME as one of the ecosystem players, we’ve enabled it as one of the largest sector banks and it has phenomenally taken off well and the best part is that we have enabled collaborations with non-financial services and enablers," says Prachi Pareek, Director - Payments Consulting, EY.

Slightly touching upon regulations in fintech, Prateek, explains, "When we talk regulation in fintech, we are also assisting and discussing with the regulators as to what exactly we can do to enable fintech to do international business or in the mainline to what is it that can be done basis the different trends that we see. I believe India has a lot of scope in this sector.” 

Discussing fintech as an entity and the relevance of customer centricity, Usha Murali, CCRO, Spice Money, opines, “Regulated entities like banks are heavily regulated, directly so by the RBI but for a fintech, it is not just the legal obligation. As citizens of the country, it is also a social responsibility to be self-regulated. Whether a fintech is directly regulated or not, self-regulation on this particular aspect of a consumer being at the centre of focus in itself is very important. Secondly, if you look at the regulatory views, it is also on data security, cyber security, data privacy and a lot of it stems from the consumer angle also and of course national security concerns.”

Talking about the future of conversions of finance and technology together, Alok Kumar, Co-founder and CTO, Karza Technologies said, “I think the last decade has been really transformative. Every player in the BFSI space has innovated and has been looking at how technology can be incorporated. Drawing parallels, today if you see there’s a massive transformation but there are challenges as well. If you are working in a regulated environment, how you tackle the cases is one of the major challenges we are facing today. The stepping stone is really great but there is a lot for us to do. The vision the way I see it, we need to reach a place where there’s no difference when I am probably looking at a financial product or any other type of transaction, it should be seamless in the future."

Fintech in India has a bright future, with the sector primed for continued expansion and innovation. With a big unbanked population, rising smartphone penetration, and supporting government regulations, India is poised to undergo a dramatic financial technology development.