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FINTECH IN INDIA – OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
Article · January 2019
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ISSN: 2319-1422 Vol 8, Issue 1, January 2019, Impact Factor SJIF 2018 = 5.97
SAARJ Journal on
Banking & Insurance
Research (SJBIR)
( Dou b l e B li n d Ref e r e e d & Re vi e we d I n te r n a ti on a l J ou r n a l )
DOI MUNBER: 10.5958/2319-1422.2019.00002.X

FINTECH IN INDIA – OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
Dr. C. Vijai*
*Assistant Professor,
Department of Commerce,
St.Peter‘s Institute of Higher Education and Research,
Chennai, INDIA
Email id: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Fintech is financial technology; Fintech provides alternative solutions for banking services and
non-banking finance services. Fintech is an emerging concept in the financial industry.The main
purpose of this paper accesses the opportunity and challenges in the fintech industry. It explains
the evolution of the fintech industry and present financial technology (fintech) in the Indian
finance sector. The fintech provide digitalization transaction and more secure for the user. The
benefits of fintech services reducing operation costs and friendly user. The fintech services India
fastest growing in the world. the fintech services are going to change the habits and behavior of
the Indian finance sector.
KEYWORDS: Artificial Intelligence, Open Banking, Block Chain, Financial Services, Fintech
Revolution. Crypto Currency,
South Asian Academic Research Journals

http://www.saarj.com
42
INTRODUCTION
The term ―FinTech‖ was first coined by a New York banker in 1972. While there is no widely
accepted definition of what lies under the term FinTech, companies considered to belong to that
sector provide services including payment options, online marketplace lending, mobile apps,
financing, foreign exchange and remittances, investments, distributed ledger tech, digital
currencies, mobile wallets, artificial intelligence and robotics in finance, crowd funding, insurance,
and wealth management, with an expanded definition considered to include ancillary technology
solutions targeted at financial services, such as digital identity, biometrics, wearables, and
technology to assist with Regulatory Compliance (RegTech) (Digital Finance Institute, 2016). As
such, the financial services sector has become significantly impacted and influenced by emerging
technology-enabled trends that support innovation.
A recent report by Ernst and Young (2016), Capital Markets: Innovation and the FinTech
Landscape identified the following nine technologies or technology-enabled trends that,
individually or collectively, facilitates current and future FinTech innovations:
1. Cloud technology
2. Process and service externalization
3. Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
4. Advanced Analytics
5. Digital Transformation
6. Block chain
7. Smart Contracts
8. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
9. Internet of Things
WHAT IS FINTECH?
Fintech refers to the novel processes and products that become available for financial services
thanks to digital technological advancements. More precisely, the Financial Stability Board defines
fintech as ―technologically enabled financial innovation that could result in new business models,
applications, processes or products with an associated material effect on financial markets and
institutions and the provision of financial services‖.
Nonetheless, the Fintech segment includes many elements, which according to Dortfleitneret al.
(2017: 34-36) can be ―loosely‖ categorized into four main segments i.e. ―financing‖, ―asset
management ‖, ―payments‖ and ―other Fintechs‖. The four main segments along with their
elements are visible in figure 1, below.

43
Figure 1: Segments and elements of Fintech
Source: Segments and Elements of Fintech (Dortfleitner et al. 2017: 37).

THE EVOLUTION OF FINTECH INDUSTRY
1860 The Pantelegraph was Invented
1880 Using Charge Plates and Charge Coins For Credit
1918 -1970 The Invention of Fedwire
1919 An Important Book Was Published Linking Finance and Technology
1950 Diner ‗S Club Introduced a Credit Card
1958 American Express Introduced Their Credit Card
1960 Quotron Allowed Stock Market Quotes to be Shown on a Screen
1966 Telegraph Replaced by the Telex Network
1967 First ATM Installed By Barclays Bank
1971 NASDAQ Established
1982 -1983 Evolution of E – Trade and Online Banking
2009 Release of Bitcoin
2011 Google Pay Send Developed ( Google Wallet )
2017 ―Smile To Pay‘‘ Services Introduced by Alibaba
Source: www.getsmarter.com

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GLOBAL FINTECH FINANCING ACTIVITY
Figure 2: Global Fintech Financing Activity
Source: Global Fintech Financing Activity 2010-2017 (Accenture 2018: 1).

The data provided in Figure 2, shows that Fintech is a segment of the financial services sector that
is still in its infant stage and far more investment is required if Fintech startups are to compete with
traditional, cash-rich and politically influential financial services providers (Bugrov et al. 2017: 2-
3). Despite this, the global traditional financial services providers need to pay attention to the
development of Fintech and try to update and improve their strategies and services and protect
themselves from losing market share to Fintech companies (Bugrov et al. 2017: 2-3).
FINTECH IN INDIA
According to the report of (KPMG 2016), India is transitioning into a dynamic ecosystem offering
fintech start-ups a platform to potentially grow into billion dollar unicorns. From tapping new
segments to exploring foreign markets, fintech start-ups in India are pursuing multiple aspirations.
The Indian fintech software market is forecasted to touch USD 2.4 billion by 2020 from a current
USD 1.2 billion, as per NASSCOM. The traditionally cash-driven Indian economy has responded
well to the fintech opportunity, primarily triggered by a surge in e-commerce, and Smartphone
penetration. The transaction value for the Indian fintech sector is estimated to be approximately
USD 33 billion in 2016 and is forecasted to reach USD 73 billion in 2020 growing at a five-year
CAGR of 22 percent.
The investor attention has been concentrated towards hitech cities in 2015, with Bengaluru
witnessing eleven VC-backed investment deals of USD 57 million, followed by Mumbai and
Gurgaon with nine and six deals, respectively. Bengaluru, the start-up capital of India has
benefitted from the same and is ranked 15 among the world‘s major start-up cities.

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India‘s growth wave may still not be of the scale when viewed against its global counterparts, but
it is stacked well, largely due to a strong talent pipeline of easy-to-hire and inexpensive tech
workforce. From wallets to lending to insurance, the services of fintech have redefined the way in
which businesses and consumers carry out routine transactions. The increasing adoption of these
trends is positioning India as an attractive market worldwide.
FINTECH ADOPTION IN INDIA
FinTech adoption in India has increased significantly over the last two years and according to EY‘s
FinTech Adoption Index 2017, India has progressed to become the market with the second-highest
FinTech adoption rate (52%) across 20 markets globally. This holds true for each of the five
categories of services with digitally active Indian consumers displaying 50%— 100% higher
adoption rates than global averages. (EY FinTech Adoption Index 2017 )
Figure 3: FinTech adoption among digitally active consumers
Source: EY FinTech Adoption Index 2017 Country Dashboard.

Figure 4: Fintech investments in India by sector

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ECOSYSTEM COVERAGE OF THE INDIAN FINTECH SECTOR
Government
The government is naturally the prima facie catalyst for the success or failure of fintechin a heavily
regulated financial industry. The Government of India along with regulators such as SEBI and RBI
are aggressively supporting the ambition of the Indian economy to become a cashless digital
economy and emerge as a strong fintech ecosystem via both funding and promotional initiatives.
(Fintech in india KPMG report 2016)
The following multi-pronged approach has been taken to enable penetration of the digitally
enabled financial platforms to the institutional and public communities:
Funding Support
 The Start-Up India initiative launched by the Government of India in January 2016 includes
USD 1.5 billion fund for start-ups.
Financial inclusion and enablement
 Jan Dhan Yojana: added over 200 million unbanked individuals into the banking sector
 Aadhar has been extended for pension, provident fund and the Jan Dhan Yojana.
Tax and surcharge relief
A few notable initiatives on this front are:
 Tax rebates for merchants accepting more than 50 percent06of their transactions digitally.
 80 percent06rebates on the patent costs for start-ups.
 Income tax exemption for start-ups for first three years.
 Exemption on capital gains tax for investments in unlisted companies for longer than 24
months (from 36 months needed earlier).
 Surcharge on online and card payments for availing of government services proposed to be
withdrawn by the Ministry of Finance.
Infrastructure support
 TheDigitalIndiaandSmartCitiesinitiativeshavebeenlaunchedtopromotedigitalinfrastructuredevel
opmentinthecountryaswellasattractforeigninvestments.
 Thegovernmentrecentlylaunchedadedicatedportaltoprovideeaseinregistrationtostart-ups.
IP facilitation support
 Startups will get support from the government in expenses of facilitators for their patents filing,
trademark and other design work.

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Figure 5: The Five Elements of the Fintech Ecosystem
REGULATORS
In India, RBI has been instrumental in enabling the development of fintech sector and espousing a
cautious approach in addressing concerns around consumer protection and law enforcement. The
key objective of the regulator has been around creating an environment for unhindered innovations
by fintech, expanding the reach of banking services for unbanked population, regulating an
efficient electronic payment and providing alternative options to the consumers.
Fintech enablement in India has been seen primarily across payments, lending, and
security/biometrics and wealth management. These have been the prime focus areas for RBI and
we have seen significant approaches published for encouraging fintech participations. Examples:
 Introduction of ―Unified Payment Interface‖ with NPCI, which holds the potential to
revolutionize digital payments and take India closer to objective of ―Less-Cash‖ society,
Approval to 11 entities for setting up Payments Bank and approval to 10 entities for setting up
Small Finance Banks that, can significantly run in favour of cause for Financial Inclusion.
 Release of a consultation paper on regulating P2P lending market in India and putting
emphasis for fintech firms and financial institutions to understand the potential of blockchain.
 One of the areas with a huge scope is around managing P2P remittances in India. In India, the
smaller the remittance size, the higher is the transaction cost percentage, which makes it
extremely expensive for beneficiaries involved in transactions. This massive problem is a big
opportunity for any fintech firm committed to address it well, as has been guided in the mature
markets. Example:
 Some of the fintech firms such as Transfer Wisein UK, have come up with a remittance
platform; and with the rising acceptability of the same, the firm has touched a valuation of
USD 1.1 billion.
 In summary, the Indian regulators have played a laudable role to support the fintech sector
growth in India, and such momentum is required for even more radical and well-timed policy

48
initiatives going forward. Indian regulators may be at a stretch balancing the complex
regulatory framework building activity and monitoring the fast-moving Indian fintech market.
To address this, they can work towards adopting some of the regulatory practices in line with
those established across the globe. Examples:
 In the UK, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched an initiative in name of ―Project
Innovate‖ for helping start-ups work with British financial regulators to launch innovative
products in the market.
 In the U.S, adoption of ―BitLicense‖ regulation by the New York State Department of
Financial Services in 2015 is proving to be instrumental in enabling innovation.
FINTECH INNOVATIONS, PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGY
According to a report by WEF 2015, there is no commonly accepted taxonomy for FinTech
innovations. In order to get a sense of the broad nature of the ongoing developments in this area,
the WG categorized some of the most prominent FinTech innovations into five main groups
through its scoping exercise. Though this does not represent a comprehensive review of all
FinTech innovations, it highlights those regarded as potentially having the greatest effects on
financial markets.
A simple categorization of some of the most prominent FinTech innovations into groups according
to the areas of financial market activities where they are most likely to be applied is as under:
CATEGORIZATION OF MAJOR FINTECH INNOVATIONS
Payments, Deposits, Market Investment Data Analytics
Clearing & Lending & provisioning management & Risk
Settlement capital raising Management
Mobile and web- Crowd-funding Smart contracts Robo advice Big data
based payments Peer to peer Cloud computing Smart contracts Artificial
Digital lending Digital e-Aggregators e-Trading Intelligence &
currencies currencies Robotics
Distributed Distributed
ledger Ledger
Source: WEF 2017.
THE FUTURE OF FINTECH IN INDIA
As we understood, Fintech has already caused a revolution and Fintech entrepreneurs have begun
to disrupt the financial services industry in several forms. Let us now explore the Fintech
ecosystem and the sectors in Fintech which will roll the next set of innovations.
 Blockchains- Traditionally, transactions needed a third-party validation to take place. Then
came blockchains which did away with third part reconciliation and provided cryptographic
security. Bitcoins, which use the blockchain technology, have already become a rage. But
blockchains are expected to go way beyond just bitcoins, payment transactions, banking
industry and foray into various other sectors like media, telecom, travel and hospitality etc.

49
 Alternate lending- Traditional banking industry found it unprofitable to lend to small
entrepreneurs. Fintech entrepreneurs took advantage of this opportunity by diving into Peer to
peer (P2P) based lending and building web platforms to bring together the lenders and
borrowers at lower interest rates. This trend is set to continue and other alternate lending
avenues like crowd funding are set to emerge further.
 Robo advisory- Earlier intermediaries played an important role between the stock market and
the investors. Many times this led to non-traceable and inefficient transactions. Robo advisory
will make the stock market easier to access, transparent and traceable and give more value
addition to the smarter investors.
 Digital payments- Fintech start-ups have increased the speed and convenience of payments.
Mobile wallets have already replaced traditional wallets in a lot of places and will penetrate
further with better and faster payment options. And yes, ATMs will become redundant too.
 Insurance sector- Currently, we can find various online market places where consumers can
compare their insurance policies and take prudent decisions. Fintech will further bring in
technological revolution in the insurance value chain through automation driven by data and
thereby not only reduce the cost of operations but increase the length and breadth of products
available in the market.
TYPES OF FINTECH COMPANIES
According to Accenture, financial technology companies can be classified into two major
categories that are Competitive Fintech Ventures and Collaborative Fintech Ventures. In the latest
report in 2016, Accenture explains that the Competitive Fintech Companies are those who will
cause direct obstacles as well as create challenges for the financial services organizations. These
companies have achieved a lot of success over the years by focusing mainly on providing new
experiences and benefits to their customers through technology products instead of targeting at
high profits. For example, the professional business strategies with the preferred price offered by
eToro aim at supporting, advising and providing optimal solutions for the retail investors.
Moreover, the card service has also been upgraded and developed by Square to maximize benefits
for micro merchants. (Accenture 2016)
On the other hand, Accenture also does not forget to emphasize the importance of Collaborative
Fintech Companies in driving the evolution of the financial institutions. In fact, the Collaborative
Fintech Ventures consider the existing financial institutions as their potential customers. Therefore,
they always try to cooperate, support, and provide solutions to improve the position and the
interests of these financial institutions in the market. To illustrate, the Collaborative Fintech Firms
help the financial institutions to innovate their products and services as well as break their
traditional business model to bring a new and more sustainable development in the future. Besides
that, they also help financial institutions optimize their existing enterprise, minimize costs and
simplify procedures as well as everyday financial services through the innovation and the
application of the high-tech products. (Accenture 2016)
TOP FINTECH COMPANIES IN INDIA
Ranking Company Name Business category City Total Funding
1 Paytm Mobile wallet, e-commerce Noida $890M
platform and payment bank
2 MobiKwik Mobile wallet, recharge, bill Gurgaon $86.8M

50
payments
3 BankBazaar Online marketplace providing Chennai $80M
customized rate quotes on loans
and insurance products
4 policybazaar Leading online insurance Gurgaon $69.6M
aggregator in India
5 FINO PayTech Financial inclusion technology Mumbai $65M
provider
6 ItzCash Multi Purpose Prepaid Cash Card Mumbai $50.6M
7 Capital Float Online lending platform for small Bangalore $42M
businesses
8 Mswipe PoS terminal for accepting card Mumbai $35M
payments
9 Ezetap Payment device maker Bangalore $35M
10 Citrus Pay Payment gateway and mobile Mumbai $34.5M
wallet
Source : Tracxn.(June 06, 2016). India‘s 50 Most Well-Funded Fintech Companies.
CHALLENGES AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
 In India, acceptance of various cashless modes payments was seen after demonetization notes.
The government itself encouraged everyone towards the cashless technologies like digital
wallets, Internet banking, and the mobile-driven point of sale (POS).
 Linking with the Aadhaar card, eKYC, UPI and BHIM had restructured the financial sector in
India. After the ban of 500 and 1000 notes, it was reported that digital transactions raised up to
22% in India FinTech start-ups like PayTM saw 435% of more traffic to the websites and
Apps. This led to the growth of many FinTech start-ups in India as there are many
opportunities to grow.
 Digital Finance firms have benefited from many government‘s start-up policies. Reserve Bank
of India also allowed an easy way to start a FinTech start-up. Government is also providing the
financial assistance for start-up‘s up to 1 crore. Customers started accepting the digital
currency for both personal and commercial use.
 Due to various changes in the Indian economy, the financial structure of Indian banks and
financial institutions were changed and digital wallet became a mandatory channel for the
transfer of payments.
 Integration of IT with finance led to the increase in the value of digital money like Bitcoins.
Crypto currency, Block chain system led to faster transactions of digital payments.
 Banks like HDFC, Federal Bank etc. linked there official digital transactions with the small
startup in India like Startup Village which led to the growth even in small FinTech start-ups.
 Modernization of the tradition sector of banking and finance had increased more customers,
reduced the time and were able to provide fast and quick services to the customers.
 FinTech industry also has few challenges, like Fintech startups, find a little difficult to reach
the growing phase in the business cycle.

51
 Collaboration and adoption rate is quite less but the ratio is moving upwards with a 59%
increase in the digital payments.
 Integration of many other techniques like blockchain management, cryptocurrency is not still
in a niche stage in India.
 Transparency of the regulatory issues and hiring of tech personnel are among the key
challenges of the Indian FinTech space.
Source: www.investindia.gov.in
 Innovation has been a bit limited for the low-income groups. Additionally, mass awareness and
internet bandwidth is still a huge roadblock in India.
 As a coin has two faces even FinTech industry in India also have few challenges, Yet these
challenges can be converted into opportunities if a further support is provided by the
government.(Parinita Gupta,2018, Fintech Ecosystem in India: Trends, Top Startups,
Jobs, Challenges and Opportunities)
CONCLUSION
The result of this study shows that Fintech industry change for the financial services in India. and
India's fastest growing fintech industry in the world. In the feature, Indian fintech software market
is forecasted to touch USD 2.4 billion by 2020 from a current USD 1.2 billion, as per NASSCOM.
The traditionally cash-driven Indian economy has responded well to the fintech opportunity,
primarily triggered by a surge in e-commerce, and Smartphone penetration. The transaction value
for the Indian fintech sector is estimated to be approximately USD 33 billion in 2016 and is
forecasted to reach USD 73 billion in 2020 growing at a five-year CAGR of 22 percent. The Indian
government also focuses on and encourages fintech industry and promote new ideas and
innovations refer to the fintech industry. Fintech is an emerging concept in the financial industry.
Financial technology innovation in India more advantage for the Indian economy, the fintech
services more secure and user-friendly. the fintech services reduce their costs for financial
services.
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df. Accessed 28 September 2016.

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