DFS secretary urges fintechs to focus on driving offline payment solutions to boost financial inclusion

New Delhi, Jul 7 (PTI) DFS Secretary M Nagaraju on Monday urged fintechs to focus on driving offline payment solutions to enhance financial inclusions.

Also, he urged fintechs to use technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance user convenience by simplifying the payment process.

Speaking at the CII Summit on Financial Inclusion and FinTech, Nagaraju requested "fintechs to focus their attention on payment solutions for offline payment".

Additionally, he highlighted that financial inclusion is increasingly recognised as a major factor in economic growth and poverty alleviation on a global scale.

"Financial inclusion is being increasingly recognised as one of the key drivers of both economic development as well as poverty evaluation all over the world," he said.

Nagaraju stressed on the critical role played by fintechs in advancing financial inclusion and consumer protection.

"FinTech should actually look at least consumer protection, ensure that the consumers who are using your ecosystem are not unfairly treated, and their complaints are addressed properly and they are protected," he added.

He pointed out that seven of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) are directly connected to financial inclusion. This suggests the importance of improving access to financial services for the unbanked and under-served populations, he said.

To illustrate progress made in India, he recalled data from before 2014, when only about 35 per cent of adults in India had access to a bank account, as estimated by the Global Findex Database.

In response to this situation, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) was launched in 2014 to improve financial access. Now, 99 per cent of adults in India have bank accounts. This scheme enabled lakhs of Indians to open bank accounts and integrate into the formal financial system, he added. PTI SP TRB TRB