Reserve Bank of India - Speeches

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• Reserve Bank’s initiatives in institution building for the FinTech sector include: (i) establishment of the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT)12 which has been playing a crucial role in shaping the digital transformation of the Indian banking industry; (ii) creation of the National Payment Corporation of India Ltd (NPCI)13 which has emerged as a pivotal organization driving the transformation of retail digital payments in India; (iii) setting up of the Indian Financial Technology & Allied Service (IFTAS)14, an institution to design, deploy & provide essential IT-related services, as required by the RBI, banks, and financial institutions; (iv) setting up of the Reserve Bank Information Technology Pvt. Ltd. (ReBIT)15 in 2016 to strengthen cyber resilience of the Reserve Bank and that of the banking sector; (v) formation of the FinTech department in RBI in 2022; and (vi) establishment of the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) to promote innovation in financial services.

• The defining feature of the Indian ‘model’ of digitisation is the lead taken by the Government and the Public Sector in building an infrastructure, on top of which innovative products are created by private sector FinTech firms and start-ups.

• the percentage of adults in India who had access to bank account increased from 35% in 2011 to 78% in 2021

• So far, over 500 million Jan Dhan bank accounts have been opened in India.

• The UPI has played a phenomenal role in the FinTech revolution in India.

• Further, RBI is now conducting hackathons to promote innovation.

• recent tech-based initiatives taken by the RBI which promise to be transformational.

• Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)

• CBDC-Wholesale Pilot was launched on November 1, 2022, to settle secondary market transactions in government securities

• CBDC-Retail Pilot was launched on December 1, 2022 and covers both Person to Person (P2P) and Person to Merchant (P2M) transactions.

• Recently, we have enabled full inter-operability of CBDC with UPI QR codes and are targeting one million CBDC transactions per day by December 2023.

• Public Tech Platform for frictionless credit

• Currently, data required for credit appraisal exists in separate systems of different entities like Central and State Governments, technology and FinTech companies, banks, service providers like Credit Information Companies, digital identity authorities

• Accessing customer data available with multiple data sources is a challenge for banks

• To enable frictionless credit, in August 2023 RBI announced the launch of a digital Public Tech Platform, conceptualised and developed in association with the RBIH

• The platform enables seamless flow of digital information from all the above sources to lenders, obviating the need for multiple integrations.

• key issues which are critical for the FinTech ecosystem to be stable and future ready

• customer centricity, governance, and self-regulation

• focus on customers means embracing a customer-centric approach to innovation by understanding the needs of customers,