Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra said India’s fintech revolution has entered a new phase where responsible use of data will be key to deepening inclusion and driving sustainable growth. Speaking at the 6th Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2025 in Mumbai, he said, “This event reflects India’s ambition to remain at the cutting edge of digital innovation. Over the years, this fest has gained from strength to strength, and I congratulate the organisers.”

GFF 2025 is being organised by the Payments Council of India (PCI), the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Fintech Convergence Council (FCC).

The governor said the country’s fintech sector owes much of its success to the strong foundation of the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). “The DPI underpins India’s digital transformation over the last decade,” said Malhotra. He stated that the combination of Aadhaar, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), and the data layer has enabled India to become a global leader in digital finance. He noted that UPI now handles more than 500 million transactions daily, accounting for almost half of global real-time payment volumes.

The governor praised the fintech ecosystem for using these public rails to innovate and grow rapidly. “Today, India is home to more than 10,000 fintechs with over 40 billion US dollars of investments in the past decade,” he said. “The sector’s strength lies in our deep pool of technology talent, a vibrant financial ecosystem, and enabling government policies.” The RBI, he said, has held over 500 interactions with fintech firms through initiatives like FinTech Interact and FinQuery to better understand emerging trends and challenges.

He also emphasised that the RBI’s approach is to support innovation without stifling it. “Recognising the diversity of the fintech sector, we have kept them outside the regulatory space today,” he said. “At the same time, we have recognised a self-regulatory organisation that will help fintechs adopt baseline governance standards and best practices developed by themselves.” This, he said, would ensure responsible growth without heavy-handed oversight.

Outlining the way forward, the governor stated that the next phase of fintech development should focus on data aggregation, the digital rupee, artificial intelligence, and combating digital fraud. “The account aggregator framework is empowering individuals to share their financial data safely with regulated entities,” he said, noting that it already serves 160 million accounts.

“RBI is now working to improve customer onboarding, strengthen data security, and increase transparency in consent management and data sharing,” he added. “The synergy between public rails and private innovation is what makes India’s digital story a global example.”