Huge opportunity lies ahead for Indian fintech firms, says Niti Aayog CEO

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Friday said there is a huge opportunity for Indian financial technology (fintech) companies going ahead, even as he emphasised the need to re-evaluate existing KYC norms to make the process more cost effective. In India, he said, 80 per cent adult population has bank accounts, which is better than the global average. Addressing a virtual CII seminar on 'Fintech and Digitisation', Kant said the Indian fintech market will mature and there is a need to make the country a fintech hub. "As India's fintech matures, there will be huge opportunity for existing as well as new fintech companies to adapt and grow... (there is) a need to re-evaluate the existing KYC paradigm to make it highly cost-effective and easy to do. Video on boarding and use of AI can be the way forward," he said.       Kant further said India has prepared itself for disruption that has happened by pushing digitisation, while in the Western world, leaders are still figuring out how to distribute money to people and business affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also stressed on the need to increase sachetisation of financial products. The Niti Aayog CEO also pointed out that India needs low cost, high volume products and flow-based lending to give push to financial integration.

Kant said India will have to build infrastructure to become a role model for the rest of the world. "We are in the midst of challenging times because of COVID-19 and going forward, we will be increasingly doing faceless transactions," he said.