‘Fintech firms will go global with govt’s clear thinking’

Indian financial technology (fintech) companies will go global on the back of support from the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Dilip Asbe, MD and CEO, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said.

Asbe was in conversation with Harshil Mathur, chief executive officer and co-founder, Razorpay, at the company’s annual event in Bengaluru.

“Creating an acquiring footprint, creating value-added services over that, I think it is very logical for fintechs in India. I would be really surprised if we lose that game. With the clear thinking of the government and RBI, Indian fintechs will go global, as simple as that,” he said. Asbe explained that Indian fintech companies will have to take the lead to explain the country’s payment standards to the world before exporting them globally.

“If we are going to supply the payment standards to the world, companies will have to take the lead to take these standards and explain it to the other countries. It will need investments, but payment startups are fairly well-funded.

The dilemma that you (fintechs) must be having is how do we focus on the global markets since India itself is a large market,” he elucidated.

Mathur from Razorpay concurred with Asbe’s views. He said Indian fintech companies should do what technology firms from the US did to position themselves as dominant corporations on the internet.

“One of the things that we have seen play out with US companies is that since technology companies came from that country, these companies became dominant firms on the internet. We should do that on fintechs,” Mathur added.

NPCI’S flagship instant payment system, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is currently live in other countries apart from India.

UPI services are used in countries such as Sri Lanka, Mauritius, United Arab Emirates, France, among others.

Meanwhile, on compliance, Asbe cautioned fintech founders to avoid venturing into products that the regulator has not given a go-ahead.

“What is not written in the regulation, the answer is a ‘no’. This is the dilemma many fintech founders keep asking. (They say) if something has not been prohibited, let’s do it. So, what is not given an approval is a ‘no’,” he said.