Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra urged the fintech industry to prioritise inclusion, customer-centric innovation, and robust security while positioning India as a global leader in digital finance during his address at the Global Fintech Fest 2025. Speaking at the Jio World Convention Centre on the event’s second day, Malhotra outlined five guiding principles for the sector, emphasising that “Think global by working local. Let India lead how the future of digital finance shapes globally.”
Malhotra’s keynote, delivered under the summit’s theme “Empowering Finance for a Better World – Powered by AI,” highlighted the RBI’s proactive stance on emerging technologies. He revealed that the central bank is actively working on leveraging financial data, asset tokenisation, and artificial intelligence—areas he described as holding the future—while tackling the rising menace of digital frauds. “We need to build a data public infrastructure that will integrate the huge pool of data that we have,” Malhotra stated, pointing to the Account Aggregator framework as a key initiative. This framework empowers users to share financial data safely with regulators and financial institutions without compromising privacy, though he acknowledged, “However, there is still a lot of work to do in that area.”
Stressing the need for seamless integration, the Governor called for enhanced interoperability across aggregators, which he said would align with industry visions for ultra-fast processing. This includes enabling credit assessments and payments in mere seconds, echoing sentiments from Razorpay CEO Harshil Mathur’s earlier fireside chat at the fest, where Mathur predicted transactions completing “within a span of one second or two seconds” through AI-driven efficiencies.
Malhotra’s five thoughts for the fintech world served as a roadmap for sustainable growth:
Build for inclusion: “Prioritise building products for the in-accessed and the unreached,” he said, advocating for solutions that bridge gaps in financial access for underserved populations.
Adopt a customer-first approach: Drawing from Steve Jobs, Malhotra advised, “Get closer than ever to your customers. So close, that you tell them what they need.”
Design intuitive services: Products must be “easy to use for all audiences, including senior citizens and local language users. Even the specially abled are not left behind. Strive to design services and products so well that customer service is not required in the first place.”
Enable strong firewalls: He emphasised prioritizing “customer safety from digital frauds,” underscoring the RBI’s commitment to fortifying defenses against cyber threats.
Think global by working local: As noted, Malhotra envisions India setting the global standard for digital finance innovation.
The Governor also praised India’s vibrant fintech ecosystem, noting it is home to nearly 10,000 entities driving innovation in payments, lending, and beyond. His address comes amid the RBI’s planned launch of an interoperable netbanking switch at the event, aimed at reducing transaction delays for merchants.
The three-day Global Fintech Fest, has drawn over 80,000 participants, including policymakers and innovators. It continues tomorrow with addresses by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, focusing on international collaborations in AI-powered finance.
