Fasten your seat belts: The switch to Fintech 2.0 has just begun

A shakeout among fintech firms is very likely, as the stress on governance and compliance is set to go up many notches

Last year, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das did some plain speaking at the third edition of the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai in September 2022, cautioning that it was imperative for fintech firms to obey traffic rules, for their own safety and that of others. And “pay attention to governance, business conduct, regulatory compliance and risk-mitigation frameworks,” he warned.

Yet two months later, an internal survey by the Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment — in collaboration with the Center for Financial Inclusion, an American think-tank — saw governance risk being ranked as low as 19 by non-lenders,