SBI chief pitches for national financial grid to check digital frauds

It will be a dedicated intelligence infra company that will enable real-time intel sharing among banks and other financial-sector participants to strengthen customer protection against digital frauds

Similar to the role played by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in transforming the country’s digital payments landscape, plans are underway to create a dedicated intelligence infrastructure company — the Indian Digital Payment Intelligence Corporation (IDPIC). This entity will enable real-time intelligence sharing among banks and other financial-sector participants to strengthen customer protection against digital frauds, State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman C S Setty said at an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Mumbai on Tuesday. 

Setty added that IDPIC is one of the most ambitious projects — as ambitious as Unified Payments Interface (UPI), if not more — and something nobody in the world has ever attempted. 

“I think we hope to succeed in that. And this shared digital infrastructure for fraud and risk management can also be combined with the national financial grid,” Setty said. 

Reports have suggested that all 12 state-owned banks are expected to pick up equity stakes in IDPIC, which will have an authorised capital of ₹500 crore, and a paid-up capital of ₹200 crore. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given its nod to the project. 

Speaking at the CII event, Setty said: “…we can create a national financial grid that connects all the critical elements — credit bureaus, eKYC facilities, UPI, and account aggregator frameworks. ULI (Unified Lending Interface) is a right move, it can transform the national financial grid. It’s one unified open-access infrastructure layer that can be leveraged across the ecosystem.”

 

The SBI chairman highlighted that while bank credit to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) is growing at a fast pace, the unmet demand of small enterprises and small businesses persists. “While they are being catered to by many in the non-formal banking or financial sector, we need to bring them in. But even those people who already are accessing the formal system, I think we can think about building a digital twin for every MSME,” he said, adding that hundreds of financial institutions could access this digital twin, depending on their risk appetite and cost of funding.

 

The digital twin is essentially a secure, real-time digital financial identity that captures key financial data points of the MSMEs.

 

“This digital consolidated footprint would enable any bank, non-banking financial company (NBFC), or insurer to access validated data and instantly assess eligibility for loans. I think this will transform MSME financing from relationship-based to data-driven, real-time underwriting, levelling the playing field for billions of entrepreneurs across the world. Just to conclude, I think we need to focus on the four I’s — infrastructure, inclusivity, innovation, and intelligence,” Setty said.

 

Setty emphasised that while technology is disruptive across the financial sector, and while technology adoption is increasing within the bank, change management must be a priority. “How do we prepare our people to deliver these technologies? Even if we are rolling out wonderful applications, if employees are unable to understand what the application is for, then we are failing in our technology adoption. I think we need to focus on re-skilling and reshaping our employee orientation,” he said.