Amid the crisis at Paytm Payments Bank, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met fintech leaders on February 26 and announced that government authorities will look into changes in the ownership control of listed fintech firms for better regulatory compliance.
According to the government statement following the meeting, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and Ministry of Finance will look at the change of ownership holding/control of listed fintech companies to enable them to be in-sync with regulatory compliance.
The Department of Financial Services (DFS) will conduct a day-long workshop with Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) wherein fintech ecosystem partners can voice their issues and concerns, the government said.
During the meeting, the DPIIT mentioned that new patent examiners have been added that will reduce the turn-around-time of patent applications.
The statement has stressed that the cost of lending and funding for critical areas including the priority sector should be rationalised and that the know your customer (KYC) process across all fintech segments must be simplified and digitised.
The government also noted that issues pertaining to cybercrime will be suitably addressed in the new Digital India Act.
The government statement on the meeting of fintech leaders and the FM comes at a time when the founder and majority owner of Paytm Payments Bank
Vijay Shekhar Sharma has stepped down from the board. Sharma owns a 51% stake in Paytm Payments Bank, while One 97 Communications, as Paytm is formally known, owns the rest.
Paytm Payments Bank said on February 26 it was reconstituting the board of directors at the Paytm Payments Bank, an associate of Paytm, with the appointment of ex-Central Bank of India Chairman Srinivasan Sridhar, retired IAS officer Debendranath Sarangi, former executive director of Bank of Baroda Ashok Kumar Garg, and Retd. IAS Rajni Sekhri Sibal as independent directors.
Sources have told CNBC-TV18 that the new board will focus squarely on the resolution of compliance issues pointed out by the RBI.
