Sitharaman urges RBI to hold monthly meetings with startup, fintech firms for concern addressal

The meeting with start-ups comes after the RBI’s action against Paytm Payments Bank that has resulted in concerns about regulatory compliance in the fintech industry.

“During the deliberations, Sitharaman exhorted the regulators, including RBI, that they may hold meetings via virtual mode once a month to discuss any questions/queries/concerns of the startups and fintech companies,” an official statement said.

An official, after the meeting, said that no Paytm-related anxiety or concerns were shown by the start-up founders and fintech entities during the meeting. The meeting was attended by representatives from Policybazaar, MakeMyTrip, Razorpay, CRED, and venture capital firm PeakXV. DFS Secretary Vivek Joshi, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Secretary S Krishnan, State Bank of India Chairman Dinesh Khara and officials from National Payments Corporation of India, Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda and RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar were also present at the meeting.

The start-ups sought simplification and digitisation of KYC across all fintech entities and wanted the government to be proactive in handling cyber frauds. The government assured the companies that cybercrime will be suitably addressed in the new Digital India Act, the statement said. During the meeting, the DPIIT also assured that the turnaround time of patent applications will be reduced.