Governor Sanjay Malhotra during the inauguration of Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2026, in Mumbai
FinTechs are helping bridge India’s MSME credit gap by extending formal, collateral-like credit to millions of small businesses that, for decades were invisible to traditional underwriting models, said RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra.“This is credit reaching the last mile of entrepreneurs, offering jobs and livelihoods across the country. The Reserve Bank has consistently viewed FinTech as a valuable partner in building the financial system of the future,” Malhotra said in his address at the inaugural session of the 7th Global Fintech festival.Indian financeThe Governor noted that over the past decade, FinTech has fundamentally reshaped the architecture of Indian finance. It has taken banking from the branch to the hand of every citizen.“Today, a shopkeeper in a small town, a farmer in a remote village, a young professional in a metro city, all of them transact, save and borrow through the same seamless digital rails of UPI, Aadhaar-Enabled Payment Systems and the Jan Dhan ecosystem.“This is financial inclusion not only as a policy aspiration but as lived everyday reality for hundreds of millions of Indians.This has been made possible by FinTech, which bridges and connects our vast diverse population to the formal finance faster and affordably,” he said.Customer experienceEqually significant has been FinTech’s role in improving customer experience and efficiency in India’s financial infrastructure, reducing account opening and payment settlement times, cutting transaction costs, strengthening fraud detection through AI-driven analytics, enabling real-time supervision, etc.Perhaps nowhere is the impact more tangible than credit delivery to the MSMEs, through cash flow-based lending, account aggregators, unified lending interface, Malhotra said.He observed that the regulatory sandbox, the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub and RBI’s structured and continued dialogues with start-ups, FinTechs and other stakeholders all rest on the conviction that better policy emerges from continuous, open and constructive engagement.“We have encouraged self-regulation within the sector. We have supported the development of digital public infrastructure that FinTechs can build upon and have been open to new ideas and new players, he added.”“We have promoted responsible innovation while safeguarding trust that is the very foundation of finance. We will continue with this approach, guided by a vision to build a financial system that is safer, more trustworthy, more inclusive, fair, efficient and supports economic growth and public welfare.,” Malhotra said.Published on September 8, 2026
