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Informist, Wednesday, Jun. 18, 2025

 

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--Sitharaman: Moving ahead with fincl inclusion via unified lending interface 
--CONTEXT: Finance Minister Sitharaman's comments at digital payments event 
--Sitharaman: Need more participation by fintechs in MSME lending
--Sitharaman: Account aggregators need to work more closely with MSMEs
--Sitharaman: Deep fake doing great damage
--Sitharaman: Need solutions from fintechs to counter risks from deep fakes
--Sitharaman: Need greater fintech, digital payments in rural areas 
--Sitharaman: Indian fintechs must aim to expot successful models abroad
 

 

NEW DELHI – While India has a robust financial technology and digital payments ecosystem, there is significant need to improve their operations in rural areas and lending to micro, small and medium enterprises, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Wednesday. Sales of fast-moving consumer goods companies reflect that rural demand is strong and when demand is strong, good flow of cash to borrowers will further bolster investments in the economy, Sitharaman said at the Digital Payments Awards event.

The finance minister said that lending to MSMEs is still majorly driven by state-owned banks and in this regard, fintech companies have "potential to improve". She also said that there is a case for digital payment aggregators to look into ways to simplify digital payments, and improve operability so that the rural sector, especially the agriculture sector, can be integrated into the payments ecosystem better.

 

In this regard, Sitharaman said that financial literacy has to be improved upon. Without adequate literacy, financial risks will increase, she said. "Cybersecurity is a case in which I had interaction with a few startups and fintech companies," she said, flagging risks from growing threats such as deepfakes and digital fraud. "We need a set of fintech companies which are constantly working on giving solutions for the newer challenges which are arising," she said.

 

Financial services secretary M. Nagaraju, who was also present at the event, said that in the next leg of India's digital payments journey, there is a need to deepen adoption across sectors and geographies, particularly in underserved regions. "Our priorities must include deepening digital payment adoption across sectors and geographies," Nagaraju said.

 

Sitharaman also said that the government, along with the Reserve Bank of India, is actively working on ways to support fintech and account aggregators. To give an impetus to small-ticket borrowing, blended with an increased role of fintech companies, Sitharaman said, the central bank had announced the Unified Lending Interface. "I would urge fintech companies, digital payment aggregators to look into the model and improve lending to small borrowers," the finance minister said. "We are moving ahead and driving financial inclusion with unified lending interface," she said.

Unified Lending Interface is a digital public infrastructure being developed by the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub, which is currently functioning as a pilot project for public technology platform designed to facilitate seamless credit transactions. This platform has been positioned as a new technological platform to aggregate data from multiple data sources which will be made available to stakeholders like banks and non-banking financial companies within the lending ecosystem to enhance delivery of credit to former credit-starved sectors like agriculture and MSMEs.  End

 

Reported by Priyasmita Dutta

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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