The second day of Global Fintech Fest 2020 – the largest two-day, virtual fintech meet-up yet again saw head honchos and industry chiefs across the Fintech & BFSI ecosystems across the globe share persuasive ideas and thoughts. The two-day fest is organised by Fintech Convergence Council (FCC), Payments Council of India (PCI) and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Speaking at the virtual fintech meet-up, Uday Kotak, Managing Director & CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank betting big on the ‘risk management’ function across banking, said, Risk and risk management will play the big differentiator for banks and is what will help bankers create an edge for themselves in the industry.” “Risk management will continue to remain with banks” he stressed, in a discussion with G Padmanabhan, Non-Executive Chairman, Bank of India.
Talking about a more inclusive eco-system, Mr. Kotak said, “This is an era of coopetition. Banks and fintech will continue to co-operate in some areas while competing in the others, however digital players will emerge ahead. He also stressed that policy supervision, regulation and governance have to be ownership neutral and have to be the same for both public sector and private banks. Meanwhile, talking about fintech players, he also said he will look at investment opportunities in the sector.
Addressing the delegates at the fintech fest, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson and Chief Executive of Salesforce India said, “Digital is imperative, empowering and will give better risk management insights. Digital opens up new market segments and gives them a picture of their lending scenario, with which one can manage NPAs better.”
“Indian banks will have to adapt rapidly to the disruptive changes brought about by the coronavirus pandemic through greater data-driven decision making and digitization in day-to-day functioning” she stressed.
Reiterating on a more data-driven and digital model, Arundhati said, “Banks will have to be ready for the future. The future is going to be different from anything that we have seen in the past. Banks will therefore have to look at how they approach the entire customer journey—whether they want to be distribution-heavy and branch-light or asset-light, liability-heavy and transaction-heavy, however being digital and data driven will be imperative for banking.”
Meanwhile, in a fireside chat with Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital, Vijay Sekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO, Paytm, indicated that after entering a new business in auto and health insurance, Paytm will get into “new age stock market trading platform” before the end of this quarter. He further said that for India to achieve US 5 trillion-dollar economy, the SMEs will have to be empowered through identification and verification of SMEs. He further suggested that young startups should look at financial inclusion as an opportunity and lending can be a trillion-dollar business.
Rajan Anandan mentioned that while India has over 40000 startups with only 10% having raised venture capital. However, he said that in the last 4 months, every Indian startup has improved their profitability. He observed that products are getting better and distribution is getting smarter, and as a result, the ecosystem is going to improve. He was hopeful that by the end of 2021, the health of Indian startup ecosystem will be better placed.