Centre forms panel to look at development of Fintech

New Delhi, March 5 (IANS) The Centre on Monday constituted a committee headed by the Economic Affairs Secretary to consider ways for further development of the financial technology (Fintech) sector in India, according to an official announcement.

Among other things, the Steering Committee would look at the ways to make fintech related regulations more flexible and generate increased entrepreneurship in the sector, a Finance Ministry release said here. The Union Budget 2018-19, presented in Parliament last month, contains the proposal for forming such a committee.

"The government constitutes a Steering Committee on Fintech to consider various issues relating to development of the sector in India with a view to make regulations more flexible and generate enhanced entrepreneurship in an area where India has distinctive comparative strengths vis-a-vis other emerging economies," it said.

"The Steering Committee will also focus on how Fintech can be leveraged to enhance financial inclusion of MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises)".

FinTech is a rapidly evolving segment of the financial services sector where technology focused startups and other market entrants are disrupting how the financial services industry traditionally operates. Some known fintech companies operating in India are Paytm, Mobikwik, BankBazaar and PolicyBazaar.

Besides taking stock of the developments in the fintech sector globally, the committee's terms of reference include analysing "the regulatory regime spread over different entities that has impacted the growth of Fintech in India".

It is also required to consider "how Fintech can be leveraged in critical sectors of the economy, especially financing of MSMEs, affordable housing, delivery of e-services to vulnerable sections, provision of land record management and other government services, access and adoption of digital payments".

The Committee is "to work with government agencies like UIDAI to explore creation and use of unique enterprise identification number," the statement said.

"To consider international cooperation opportunities in fintech with countries like Singapore, UK, China, etc," it added.

The other seven members of the committee are the respective Secretaries of Electronics and IT, Financial Services, MSMEs, the Chairperson Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), Chief Executive Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor and Economic Affairs Joint Secretary (Investment), who will act as committee convener, the Ministry said.

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