New Delhi, Mar 26 (KNN) NITI Aayog organized a day-long FinTech Conclave here. The Conclave constituted parallel tracks, which looked into various dimensions of the future of the FinTech and particularly the areas of financial inclusion of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

The group focusing on financial inclusion of MSMEs recommended increasing funding sources and capital supply for MSMEs by introducing sectoral caps and increased margin size.

Building capacity by creation of ‘smart MSMEs’, expanding access to alternate data sources for underwriting and democratizing access to government-led MSME ecosystem were other recommendations brought forward, according to an official release.

The Conclave featured representatives from across the financial space – central ministries, regulators, bankers, startups, investors, service providers and entrepreneurs.

CEO of NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant noted the need to evolve regulatory and policy paradigms keeping in mind the need of nearly 450 million millennials of India to access institutional credit and charting out the future of fintech in India in light of digital technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence.

Government of India’s efforts focused on Digital India and developing India Stack including Voluntary Aadhaar for financial inclusion have evoked significant interest from various stakeholders in the area of Financial Technology (FinTech), according to a release.

India is one of the fastest growing FinTech markets globally and industry research has projected that USD 1 Trillion or 60% of retail and SME credit, will be digitally disbursed by 2029, it said.

Adding to the above statement the release mentioned that the Indian FinTech industry is creating cutting edge intellectual property assets in advanced risk management and artificial intelligence that will propel India forward in the global digital economy while simultaneously enabling paperless access to finance for every Indian.

The group on fast tracking investment in FinTech sector outlined the need for open banking to be introduced in India and data aggregation utilities be facilitated within innovative frameworks such as regulatory sandboxes.

The group also sought to explore introduction of a new sub-class of Non-banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) exclusively for fintech-centric companies to encourage innovation and targeted policy, while also increasing avenues for investor capital.