Key Details
In his address, Shaping the Next Decade of Finance – Technology, Trust and Innovation, at the Global Fintech Festival 2026, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra announced two developments and outlined the central bank’s approach to emerging financial technologies.
Area | Development |
|---|---|
Fintech self-regulation | RBI recognised the United FinTech Forum as the sector’s second Self-Regulatory Organisation |
Tokenised finance | Corporate-bond tokenisation with settlement through wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency, jointly with SEBI |
Digital lending | Continued development of the Unified Lending Interface for consent-based credit |
Fraud prevention | MuleHunter.ai in use; Digital Payments Intelligence Platform remains proposed |
AI governance | Work continues on a financial-sector AI governance framework and model-risk rules |
Quantum security | The Q-SAFE Committee is examining quantum resilience in finance |
Digital scale | The Governor reported 280 billion digital transactions in FY2025–26 and around 24 billion UPI transactions a month |
RBI Adds Self-Regulation to Its Fintech Oversight Model
The RBI has recognised the United FinTech Forum as India’s second fintech Self-Regulatory Organisation. It is expected to develop industry standards, encourage responsible conduct, build capacity and provide a channel between fintech firms and regulators.
The arrangement does not transfer the RBI’s statutory authority to the industry. It supports the central bank’s stated approach of applying proportionate oversight while increasing expectations as a firm’s payment volumes, lending activity or user base become more significant.
Corporate Bonds Join RBI’s Tokenisation Experiments
RBI and SEBI have unveiled a joint initiative to tokenise corporate bonds and settle transactions using wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency.
Tokenisation creates a digital representation of a financial asset, while wholesale CBDC provides central-bank money for settlement between participating institutions. The initiative builds on RBI’s earlier work involving tokenised certificates of deposit.
The speech does not specify the timeline, participants or market coverage. Wider use will depend on rules for ownership, custody, settlement finality, cybersecurity and operational failure.
Trust Is Being Framed as an Operating Requirement
The Governor identified data governance, cybersecurity, operational resilience and early regulatory engagementas conditions for fintech growth.
Customer data should be collected for a clear purpose, used within the consent granted and protected from misuse. Fintech firms were also cautioned against designing businesses around regulatory gaps or scaling before seeking clarity.
RBI’s position is that responsibility should rise with scale: firms capable of affecting large numbers of users or the wider financial system will face greater expectations on resilience and conduct.
Inclusion Remains the Test of Innovation
India recorded 280 billion digital transactions in FY2025–26, while UPI now processes around 24 billion transactions a month, according to the Governor.
The next challenge is extending useful savings, insurance, pension and credit products to informal workers, women entrepreneurs, farmers and smaller towns. RBI is supporting this through tools including the Unified Lending Interface, Account Aggregator framework, Regulatory Sandbox and AI-based fraud detection.
The policy test is whether these systems improve access and consumer outcomes among underserved groups—not simply whether digital transaction volumes continue to grow.
RBI Is Building Several Technology Pathways Simultaneously
The wider programme includes:
the Unified Lending Interface for consent-based digital credit;
MuleHunter.ai for identifying suspected mule accounts;
a proposed Digital Payments Intelligence Platform;
programmable retail CBDC pilots for targeted benefit transfers;
tokenised financial instruments settled through wholesale CBDC;
a proposed comprehensive AI governance framework;
draft model-risk management rules; and
the Quantum Secure and Adaptive Financial Ecosystem Committee on future cryptographic risks.
These measures are at different stages—some are operational, some are being piloted and others remain proposed or under development. Their combined direction is towards a financial system in which public digital infrastructure supports private innovation within common rules for consent, resilience and consumer protection.
What Is a Fintech Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO)?
A Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO), is an industry body recognised by a statutory regulator to establish conduct standards, monitor members, promote compliance and represent sector-wide concerns.
In fintech, an SRO can help address risks and practices that emerge faster than formal regulation can be revised. It can also provide smaller firms with common guidance and regulatory engagement. An SRO does not replace the RBI or acquire the central bank’s statutory enforcement powers. Its credibility depends on broad membership, independence from dominant firms, transparent standards and meaningful action against non-compliance.
Policy Relevance
The address signals how RBI intends to support financial innovation while tightening expectations as firms and technologies gain scale.
Test self-regulation: The second fintech SRO needs broad representation, transparent standards and credible monitoring.
Clarify tokenisation rules: Corporate bonds require clear treatment of ownership, custody, settlement finality and technology failure.
Protect customers as AI expands: Consent, explainability, bias controls and human review will matter in digital credit and fraud detection.
Measure inclusion: Fintech progress should be tracked through access, usage, cost and consumer outcomes among underserved groups—not transaction volumes alone.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: What regulatory and market safeguards must be established before tokenised corporate bonds settled through wholesale CBDC can move from controlled experimentation to wider financial-market use?
Follow the Full Address Here: RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra’s Shaping the Next Decade of Finance – Technology, Trust and Innovation