India works on FinTech guidelines
Taking cognisance of exponential growth of digitisation and online commerce in India, policy efforts have been directed in recent years to put in place a ‘state of the art’ national payments infrastructure and technology platform, the Reserve Bank of India Governor said on 13 April 2019 in Washington.
“This has changed the retail payments scenario of the country,” Governor Shaktikanta Das said at the “Governor Talks” on the sidelines of the Fund-Bank Spring Meetings, 2019.
“Regulation and development of our payment system envisages the objectives of safety, security, convenience, accessibility, and leveraging technological solutions to enable faster processing,” he assured.
In order to ensure an orderly development of FinTechs and streamline their influence into the financial system, “we are now working on guidelines to introduce a ‘regulatory sandbox/innovation hub’ within a well-defined space and duration to experiment with FinTech solutions”, he said.
Noting concerns of both oil exporting and importing countries to ensure stability in energy prices, Das highlighted the example of New Delhi-headquartered International Solar Alliance (ISA) for an alternate and renewable energy.
ISA seeks to provide a dedicated platform for cooperation among financial and solar resource rich countries so that the global community benefits from the use of solar energy, he said.
On Indian economy, Das said the Gross Domestic Product growth is expected to clock 7.2% during 2019-20. This is the fastest among large economies of the world, growing by an average rate of around 7.5% in recent years.
Inflation has remained below target, averaging 3.6% for the period under the inflation targeting framework so far (since October 2016 up to February 2019); the current account deficit is expected to be around 2.5% of GDP in 2018-19; and the gross fiscal deficit has adhered to budgetary targets.
“Looking ahead, our priority is to remain watchful and take coordinated action to revive growth and maintain macroeconomic, financial and price stability,” he said. fiinews.com
