NEW DELHI and MUMBAI, India | 29th September 2021: Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Honorable Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Government of India, released the UN Report on Responsible Digital Payments that revolves around good practices for financial consumer protection, putting users at the center of payment digitisation, especially women and people living in rural areas. She unveiled the report at the Global FinTech Fest on 28 September. Speaking at the Fest, organised by Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) and Payments Council of India (PCI) of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), along with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the Finance Minister said that India has the highest Fintech adoption rate of 87% as opposed to the global average rate of 64%, which establishes the fact that India is a prime destination for digital payments and activities.
The Finance Minister said, “The UN principles on digital payments have come at the right time and will serve as an important resource to all stakeholders in delivering digital payments based on the principles of trust, consent, privacy, transparency, and choice for the end-user.”
“The UN Principles for Responsible Digital Payments is coming in at the right time, especially when countries are racing against each other to reach their maximum population with technology,” she said.
She emphasised that digital payments have seen tremendous growth from US$ 269 bn worth of digital transactions in 2019 to US$ 539 bn in 2020. The last eight months from January to August 2021 saw further momentum, clocking US$ 800 bn worth of digital transactions with a number of individual transactions at 3.5 bn, showing energetic participation from users, industry and the Government in the digital ecosystem.
Fintech startups are altering and remodeling themselves to futuristic technologies for making India the Fintech destination. India has a combination of FinTechs innovating at a rapid pace with user’s eager to adopt digital platforms.
“Under the leadership of Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, India has democratised financial services and accelerated the deployment of digital public good infrastructure that promotes financial inclusion and progress towards sustainable development goals,” said Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman.
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is covered in the UN Principles as an example of how an open, inclusive, and interoperable digital public good infrastructure can lead to greater economic participation by the society.
