FM Nirmala Sitharaman chairs meeting with top executives of 50 fintech firms

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday chaired a meeting with top executives of around 50 fintech firms to discuss regulatory issues being faced by them and impressed upon them to strictly comply with the norms, according to an official. The FM also asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to hold monthly meetings with startup and fintech firms to address their concerns, officials said.

"Finance Minister suggested that RBI may hold a meeting on a fixed day every month via virtual mode with the startup and fintech firms to address their concerns and issues," one of the officials told PTI.

The meeting was attended by top executives of private sector fintech firms, including RazorPay, PhonePe, Google Pay and Amazon Pay. From the government side, the meeting was attended by Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi, DPIIT Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh and MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) Secretary S Krishnan. RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar, SBI Chairman Dinesh Khara and NPCI officials too were present.

Further, the official said that cybersecurity-related concerns were raised by startups. Some startups suggested that government should take proactive steps to deal with such frauds. The startups and fintech entities appreciated the processes and efficacy of GIFT City, the official added.

The meeting comes at a time when the Reserve Bank of India's action against Paytm Payments Bank has put the spotlight on regulatory compliance in the fintech industry. Representatives of Paytm was not invited for the meeting on Monday. However, the official told PTI said that no Paytm-related anxiety or concerns were shown by the startup founders and fintech entities during the meeting.

On January 31, RBI barred Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) from accepting any fresh deposits or top ups from customers after February 29 for not complying with regulations. The deadline was later extended till March 15.

Last week, RBI advised the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to examine the possibility of migrating the users from PPBL to four to five other banks. PPBL has 30 crore wallets and 3 crore bank customers.