Meet RBI the fintech regulator

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Editor's note: At a closed-door conference hosted by the Reserve Bank of India on 6 June at its Mumbai headquarters, a high-ranking central bank official from the recently set-up fintech department had news for a delegation of 25 to 30 industry executives.  After nearly two years of extensive consultation and research, the RBI official told the attendees that the regulator is finally prepared to introduce formal rules for the country’s loosely regulated digital lending ecosystem. The goal is an operational framework for over a thousand instant loan apps, loan marketplaces and buy now pay later companies rendering its services in India. The central bank deems over half of these entities to be operating illegally and therefore the impending regulations are expected to be “onerous and stern”, says a digital lending expert who was present at the conference, requesting anonymity. “We were told that the regulations could be placed in the public domain as early as in the next 10-15 days,” this person says. “There has been intense political pressure on RBI to act since a series of reported suicides in Telangana in …