The best stories of 2022 from our monthly fintech newsletter, FinTales. February 2022: The Hassleocracy of Crypto-taxes “Cryptos have no underlying assets, not even a tulip.” –Shaktikanta Das Ouch. That’s the RBI Governor, not mincing his words. Like everyone else, we’ve pored over the Budget announcements on crypto-assets. The euphoria in the crypto-verse was short-lived.Read more
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In this article, we take a road-trip to understand the RBI digital lending guidelines’ requirements relating to fund flow and pass-through accounts. And explore two key issues: where can money go to and where can money go through? Pass-through accounts are common in digital lending arrangements. Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) products typically involve five parties: (1) aRead more
This article walks-through the impact of the RBI’s digital lending guidelines on users and fintech businesses. “In a diverse market like India, key is to match right-priced borrower risk to investor/lender risk” -Fintech Founder (State of India Fintech Union 2022) Matchmaking. That’s what Indian fintech does best. Matching the right borrower with the right lender.Read more
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 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 analyses the impact of the RBI Working Group’s Report on Digital Lending Apps. It covers key recommendations made by the Working Group relating to credit-risk sharing, data privacy and security, artificial intelligence and buy-now-pay-later products. Regulation of digital lending in India now seems imminent. The RBI has been questioning buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) providers aboutRead more
This post explains the legal grey areas in offering credit through UPI. It provides a snapshot of regulatory action by NPCI and highlights implementation issues which must be resolved to enable this use-case. Moving money through UPI is like taking an Uber between two deposit accounts. UPI picks money (already lying-in deposit accounts) and movesRead more
Under stress due to cash-flow disruptions caused by the pandemic prompted lockdown, digital lenders are having to adapt their credit models to changing dynamics. Yet, in adversity emerges opportunity- due to social distancing becoming the ‘new normal’, digitized and contactless lending lifecycles will be vital to plugging demand in a credit-starved economy. Uday Somayajula, Co-founder,Read more