Customer support and service major issues across fintechs: RBI study

An RBI bulletin study highlights customer support and grievance redressal as key challenges for fintechs, with users citing poor service, app glitches and loan processing issues

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Customer support and service are major concerns about fintechs across sectors, said a report by the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday.

 

Unresponsive support, inadequate grievance resolution and limited customer care contact channels are key concerns about such companies, it said.

 

“Topic modelling results highlight customer support and service as a major concern across sectors, with issues like unresponsive support, inadequate grievance resolution and limited customer care contact channels. Technical issues and app functionality, including app crashes, login failures and server downtimes, are the most significant for payment tech and banking tech apps. For alternative lending apps, over half of the complaints relate to loan and credit issues, such as processing delays, credit limit concerns and data discrepancies.” 

The report noted that online consumer reviews play a key role in technology adoption by offering near real-time insights into user experiences. While overall emotions are broadly positive, the presence of negative emotions such as anger, fear and sadness underscores areas needing targeted improvement.

 

India is the world’s third-largest and fastest-growing fintech ecosystem and is emerging as a global leader in digital finance. With over 10,000 fintech startups, India ranks as the second-largest app market globally, recording 26.4 billion downloads in 2023.

 

In India, finance apps alone accounted for 481 million downloads, led by digital wallet and payment apps (100 million), personal loan apps (93 million) and investment apps (64 million) in Q4 2023 (Statista, 2024). Over the past decade, fintech funding has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21 per cent, driven by global liquidity post-pandemic, with payments and alternative lending dominating fundraising.

 

While Indian fintech apps generally deliver a positive user experience, applications in the payment and lending sectors are more likely to be installed and receive a review per install. The study found that "positive emotions" — including trust, anticipation and joy — are prevalent across all financial sectors, indicating favourable sentiment overall.

 

According to the study, fintech market share has a positive, though diminishing, impact on user experience, underscoring the importance of competition to sustain innovation. Data privacy measures and major updates were identified as key drivers of positive reviews, as these enhance functionality and strengthen user engagement.