Blog

The RBI wants digital lenders to follow ethical AI standards. But what does this mean in practice? In this article, we explore how digital lenders can adopt ethical AI standards before hardline regulation causes business disruption. “In our early days at Upstart, we couldn’t know for certain whether our model would be biased. It wasn’tRead more

This post discusses RBI’s scale based regulatory framework for NBFCs. It explains the reasons behind RBI’s new approach and its impact on the fintech ecosystem. In October 2021, RBI notified scale-based regulations for NBFCs (which will kick-in on 1 October 2022). With these regulations, RBI aims to increase transparency (in NBFC operations) through greater disclosuresRead more

This post covers the creation of a new Fintech Department by the RBI. It examines the reasons behind setting up a dedicated department and identifies issues which the Fintech Department is likely to prioritise. In December 2021, PM Modi called for a fintech revolution in India. And just a month later, RBI took a keyRead more

This post analyses the implications of RBI allowing unregulated entities to access credit bureau data. It explains the history of data sharing between regulated entities and fintech players. And highlights the benefits and risks of providing fintech players access to credit bureau data. Digital lending is a data play. The better a lender knows itsRead more

This post discusses RBI’s concerns about Big Tech’s presence in financial services and its proposed regulatory approach. “In God we trust. In Big Tech we antitrust?” was one of our favourite stories from last year. It was about Big Tech’s tussle with US and Indian anti-trust laws. And concerns of anti-trust regulators around Big Tech’sRead more

As part of the FinTales Interview Series, we speak to a fintech entrepreneur or executive every month. For the April 2022 edition of FinTales, we spoke to Vipul Sharma, the founder and CEO of Chqbook, a neo-bank catering to small businesses. We recently spoke to Vipul Sharma, the founder and CEO of Chqbook, about aRead more

As part of the FinTales Interview Series, we speak to a fintech entrepreneur or executive every month. For the February 2022 edition of FinTales, we spoke to Avinash Godkhindi, CEO of Zaggle, a neo-banking and SaaS company. What can fintech platforms learn from TikTok’s run-away success in small-towns and villages? Turns out a lot. ThisRead more

As part of the FinTales Interview Series, we speak to a fintech entrepreneur or executive every month. For the March 2022 edition of FinTales, we spoke to Vardhan Koshal, the Co-Founder of Tortoise, a savings product for high-value purchases. We recently spoke to Vardhan Koshal, Co-Founder of Tortoise. Tortoise helps users save for aspirational purchasesRead more

This post analyses the trend of RBI imposing stricter penalties on banks, NBFCs and payment system operators for non-compliance with regulatory requirements. It lists major penalties levied by the RBI in the recent past and examines the impact of these penalties on financial service providers. “RBI is neither a hawk, nor a dove. But isRead more

This post analyses RBI’s framework for offline digital payments. It also traces the history of offline digital payments in India and highlights their benefits for users. ‘Offline digital payment’ sounds like an oxymoron. But with RBI’s framework for facilitating small value offline digital payments, it may become a mainstream payment option. Offline digital payments can beRead more