India has the highest fintech adoption rate of 87%, says FM Sitharaman

Asserts that nation is a prime destination for digital payments, which have grown from transactions worth Rs two trillion in 2019 to Rs four trillion in 2020

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday that India has the highest Fintech adoption rate of 87 per cent as opposed to the global average rate of 64 per cent, which shows that India is a prime destination for digital payments and activities.

The finance minister added that digital payment transactions have grown tremendously, from Rs two trillion in 2019 to Rs four trillion in 2020. The past eight months, from January to August 2021, saw further momentum, clocking digital transactions amounting to Rs six trillion, with the number of individual transactions at Rs 355 crore, showing energetic participation from users, industry and the Government in the digital ecosystem, she said.

Sitharaman was addressing the Global FinTech Fest, organised by Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) and Payments Council of India (PCI), the two Councils of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), along with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

“Fintech startups are altering and remodelling themselves to futuristic technologies for making India the Fintech destination. India has a combination of Fin Techs innovating at a rapid pace with user’s eager to adopt digital platforms,” she said.

The Finance Minister also unveiled the UN Principles for responsible digital payments at the Global Fintech Festival and stated that the UN Principles are coming in at the right time, especially when countries are racing against each other to reach their maximum population with technology.

“India has democratised financial services and accelerated the deployment of digital public good infrastructure that promotes financial inclusion and progress towards sustainable development goals,” Sitharaman added.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is covered in the UN Principles as an example of how an open, inclusive, and an interoperable digital public good infrastructure can lead to greater economic participation by the society and especially women, in the most vulnerable times of crisis, by providing secure and contactless payments. The report revolves around consumer protection good practices that put users at the center of payment digitization, especially women and people living in rural areas who are more likely to find themselves outside the formal financial sector. The principles mentioned in the report are: safeguarding of data; recourse; transparency on pricing, interoperability within a digital payments ecosystem that treats everyone fairly; prioritizing women; ensuring products are designed ,or user needs; providing choice; and ensuring accountability to deliver on these vital tenets of responsibility.

“The UN principles on digital payments have come at the right time and will serve as an important resource to all stakeholders in delivering digital payments based on the principles of trust, consent, privacy, transparency and choice for the end user,” she said

The Fest is presented by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, Reserve Bank of India and supported by NITI Aayog, Central Bank of Kenya, Startup India and Invest India. The World Bank, United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), RBI Innovation Hub are the institutional partners of the summit. About 75 partners have collaborated for the summit, including Razorpay, Amazon Pay, WhatsApp, Google Pay, Open Digital Payments and Cashfree Payments.