Source: Mint
Context:
At the Global Fintech Fest 2025, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra called on Indian fintechs to design inclusive, accessible, and innovative financial products, particularly for underserved populations such as senior citizens, individuals with limited digital literacy, and the specially-abled.
Key Directives for Fintechs
- Inclusivity and Accessibility
- Develop products that are easy-to-use and assistive for vulnerable groups.
- Ensure no segment is left behind even while serving affluent customers.
- Leverage Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)
- Fintechs can scale rapidly using Aadhaar-based identity, UPI, digitized government data, and other public infrastructure.
- DPI enables targeted solutions for both current and future financial challenges.
- Data-Driven Growth
- Responsible use of data through:
- Digital Rupee and CBDC frameworks.
- Asset tokenization.
- Account aggregator framework.
- RBI is setting standards to improve customer onboarding, UI/UX, data security, consent management, and transparency.
- Responsible use of data through:
- Unified Markets Interface (UMI) & Asset Tokenization
- RBI has conceptualized UMI, capable of tokenizing financial assets and enabling settlements via wholesale CBDC.
- Early pilot projects, such as short-term securities tokenization, have shown promising results.
- Expected benefits include expanded access, enhanced transparency, and improved settlement efficiency.
- AI Integration
- AI will be integrated into DPI layers to improve user experience, efficiency, and conversational payment systems.
