#4 Things Fintech Companies Expect From Upcoming Budget

The fintech industry is at a very nascent stage in India and yet, has been able to disrupt the entire financial sector with cutting-edge innovation, technology and consumer first attitude.

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In fact, according to NASSCOM report published earlier last year, transaction value among fintech companies was estimated to be approximately USD 33 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach USD 73 billion in 2020, growing at a five-year CAGR of 22 per cent.

To top it all, the fintech market is forecasted to touch USD 2.4 billion by 2020.

From a fintech committee to government's commitment to support blockchain initiative, union budget 2018-19 had a lot of interesting announcement for the startups in the segment to cherish upon.

With the interim budget just around the corner, leading fintechs companies from the country share their wishlist with Entrepreneur India:

Strengthening the Fintech Committee

In the last union budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the setting up of the fintech committee within the Ministry to Finance to support the growth and development of the domestic fintech space. The committee was also expected to look into ease regulations which would further boost entrepreneurship in the space.

Adhil Shetty, CEO, BankBazaar.com expects this budget to take up from where the last budget had left off.

"We hope that this budget further strengthens the mandate of the fintech committee to make India the top fintech innovation centre in the world by ensuring policy to fast track paperless and presence-less access to finance," he shared.

Concessions on Digital Transaction

The fintech industry is hoping that the government will look at schemes that would promote digital transactions, which further support the Digital India scheme.

There are incentives for merchants who accept digital payments, however, Mandar Agashe, Founder and Vice Chairman, Sarvatra Technologies thinks similar initiatives can be introduced to the customers who use digital payments online as well as offline merchants.

"Currently there are no incentives for end users or customers to use digital payments which can be introduced in this budget so that there is an incentive for both parties (customer as well as the merchant) to use digital payments. This way even those customers using bank apps or government apps who don't provide cashback like other consumers apps will have the incentive to use digital payments," Agashe said.

Additionally, he also feels fintech companies working in rural India should be given subsidies for building awareness which will enable them to onboard more and more rural population on to the digital platforms.

Clarity on e-KYC

The 2018 Aadhaar Verdict, which stalls private companies from accessing the data stack, has created turmoil in the industry and growth has been hampered as getting a customer's e-KYC is no more a cake walk.

The fintech industry is hoping the government could provide a solution to this problem.

"We hope the government provides more clarity on the e-KYC process which has created a lot of ruckus in the system. An alternative and smoother way of processing KYC should help ease the cumbersome process of new customer acquisitions. Also, a new policy framework for adoption of newer technologies like Electronic National Automated Clearing House (e-NACH) and DigiLocker will help the industry and the end consumer at large," V Raman Kumar, Founder & Chairman, CASHe noted.

Cyber Security

From Google to Facebook, 2018 has been a year of data breaches. Considering the kind of data financial companies deals with, the Indian government should look at building a breach-proof cybersecurity system for the country.

Even though the government has strengthened its measures to curb cyber frauds with the National Security Council Secretariat functioning as the nodal agency, Gaurav Chopra, Founder and CEO, IndiaLends says, "they should implement stricter laws and policies and conduct programmes to spread awareness about cyber threats and how to deal with them."