31 - Finaldraft Milan Revised
31 - Finaldraft Milan Revised
31 - Finaldraft Milan Revised
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All content following this page was uploaded by Milan Yadav on 28 September 2022.
Milan Yadav, Research scholar, Department of Commerce and Business Studies, Central University of South Bihar,
Gaya (Bihar), ymilan439@gmail.com
Dr. Subramanian Shanmugam, Associate Professor, Department of Commerce and Business Studies, Central
University of South Bihar, Gaya (Bihar), drssmanian10@gmail.com
Abstract
Technology has been a game-changer for the lending industry by addressing key challenges that stand in the way of credit
accessibility. Digital transformation creates challenges in all industries and business sectors. Against this backdrop, the
study has been taken up with the main purpose is to exploring and understanding the challenges faced while adopting
Fintech lending and addressing the emerging opportunities for the financial sector. Our study comprises research papers,
reports, opinion papers, speeches, and news articles. In this paper, the researcher explained the challenges from three
perspectives i.e., from financial institutions (FIs), customers, and regulatory points of view. The study reported privacy
issues, financial illiteracy, lack of awareness, lack of trust from a customer point of view, the rise of non-performing
assets, poor connectivity of the internet, and an increase in credit risk from a financial institution’s point of view as
major challenges faced while adopting digital lending and there is a need for a full-fledged regulatory framework that
can contain risks.
Keywords: Digital lending, financial technology (Fintech), digital payments, digital India, challenges and opportuni-
ties, financial inclusion.
INTRODUCTION
FinTech has the potential to reshape the financial services and financial inclusion landscape in India in fundamental
ways. Through their innovations, new business models, and applications, fintech firms can help increase competition
and play an important role in accelerating financial inclusion and digital India by helping reduce costs and improving
access to financial services to the underserved, persons in low-income groups, rural and other underserved sectors of the
Indian economy. However, the most significant impact of India’s FinTech revolution has been on the MSME lending
landscape. With the emergence of innovative alternative lending platforms, smaller enterprises with no financial records
or credit history are finally getting much-deserved credit access (Raj & Upadhyay, 2020). Digital lending helps meet the
huge unmet credit need, particularly in the micro-enterprise and low-income consumer segment in India, which is the
purpose of financial inclusion. It also helps reduce informal borrowings as it simplifies the borrowing process and saves
time. Digital lending platforms have also been known to cut overhead costs by 30-50 percent (RBI, 2021).
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) defines FinTech as “technology-enabled innovation in financial services
that could result in new business models, applications, processes or products with an associated material effect on
the provision of financial services”. In the current state, it can be safely argued that fintech is in its nascent phase
and is undergoing continuous development and implementation through product and process innovation, disrup-
tion, and transformation (Sangwan et al., 2019). The primary objective of the new norms is to address concerns
related to unrestrained engagement of third parties, mis-selling breaches of data privacy, unfair business conduct,
charging of exorbitant interest rates, and unethical recovery practices. It must be noted that the RBI had constituted
Journal of the Oriental Institute, ISSN: 0030-5324, UGC CARE LIST NO. 135,
Vol. 71, Issue. 01, No.15, 2022, pp. 225-232
226 MILAN YADAV, DR. SUBRAMANIAN SHANMUGAM
a Working Group on “Digital lending including lending through online platforms and mobile apps” in January
2021 and this new regulatory framework has been proposed by the same. While some recommendations made
under the framework have been accepted for immediate implementation, others have been given in-principal ap-
proval but need further investigation. Some recommendations have been put on hold, awaiting a wider stakeholder
engagement.
Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to review the literature and identify the previous studies that addressed
the opportunities and challenges that fintech firms have for financial intuitions. Further, this paper explained the
challenges from three perspectives i.e., from financial institutions, customers, and regulatory points of view. The
study reported privacy issues, financial illiteracy, lack of awareness, lack of trust from a customer point of view,
the rise of non-performing assets, poor connectivity of the internet, and an increase in credit risk from a fintech
lending institution’s point of view as major challenges while adopting digital lending and there is a need for a full-
fledged regulatory framework regarding digital lending in India as the present framework is not sufficient.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
The fintech firms’ effect on traditional banks had been explained using consumer theory and disruptive innovation
theory (Phan et al., 2020). Consumer Theory (Aaker and Keller, 1990): The consumer theory suggests that new services
(such as those provided by FinTech firms) by meeting the same consumer demand can replace the old services (such
as those provided by traditional banks). Disruptive innovation theory (Christensen, 1997): Christensen categorizes
innovations into two types- sustaining and disruptive to attain growth, companies continuously improve product/ service
features that their mainstream customers demand through sustaining innovations. Sustaining innovations thus improve
the product along the primary performance dimension that established customer segments’ value, incrementally or
radically. Disruptive innovations, in contrast, initially appear inferior from the perspective of mainstream customers but
are appealing to emerging customers in the low-end or new niche segments, as they perform better on an alternative
dimension. As these innovations improve over time, their performance is sufficient to satisfy the more mainstream
customers in the market.
OBJECTIVES
This paper primarily addresses three objectives about the challenges and Opportunities of fintech finance:
•• To understand the current regulatory framework of digital lending in India
•• To review the challenges regarding government regulation, FIs, and borrowers
•• To examine and review the opportunities of fintech lending.
DISCUSSIONS
In India, the fintech boom over the last few years has given some interesting opportunities to tackle this prob-
lem. The fintech/Digital lending landscape provides various types of opportunities which led to addressing issues
related to access to credit. Digital credit is going to transform the lending system in India by bringing million
more MSMEs into the market in upcoming years. India, with its unique open infrastructure, unrealized customer
demand, and strong digital consumption, promises to be a significant market for digital lending (Damodaran et al.,
2019). Over the years, the digital lending market in India has significantly expanded. The value of digital lending
rose from USD 9 billion in the Financial year (FY)12 to USD 270 billion in (FY)22 and is projected to reach USD
350 billion by (FY)23(Statista).
As per the report as of 2020, India accounted for the highest fintech adoption rate (87 percent) and is the
biggest destination for investment deals worldwide. The fintech market was valued at INR 2.30 trillion in 2020.
It is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.56 percent between 2021 and 2026 to
reach INR 8.35 trillion by 2026. Within the country, some of the top fintech destinations are Mumbai, Gurugram,
Bengaluru, New Delhi, and Hyderabad. Mumbai and Bengaluru together represent 42 percent of the fintech hub
in India. Digital payments are at the heart of e-commerce, which has hit almost 50 percent of card purchases from
where it used to be 3 years ago. Customers can now do one-click checkouts with Apple Pay. Peer-to-peer and mer-
chant payments have also soared, with the rapid adoption of these services across the Unified Payments Interface
(UPI) in India (Finextra, 2021).
As per the EY fintech report, major growth drivers the easy market entry and targeted loan offerings due to the
availability of large sets of customer data, better margins than other FinTech business models, such as payments
and other financial services, and E-marketplaces are shaping customer behavior by offering lending products at the
time of purchase (Sundaram, n.d.). The portfolio outstanding of the Fintech Industry stood at 37.5 thousand crores
and recorded 10 percent annual growth as of 30th September 2021. Loan originations show an annual growth
where disbursement by amount grew by 56 percent while the number of loans disbursed grew by 51 percent from
June to September 2021 as compared to June to September 2020. Personal loans remain the top favorite product
which grew by 89 percent while Consumer loans observed a decline of 23 percent in fresh loan disbursements from
June to September 2021 as compared to June to September 2020. Business loans continue to lag behind Fintech’s
market share but have been able to manage their delinquencies below industry levels(Joshi et al., n.d.).
with the daily transactions with cash, frauds in online transactions, lack of government support and incentives for
protecting their interests, gaining investor trust are very difficult (Kangala & Priya, 2019) likewise, in Indonesia
the current regulations are still not enough in providing legal protection to consumers in conducting the transac-
tion in lending fintech(Yunirti & Rasyid, 2020). There is no unified law or single regulator with a clear mandate to
regulate the digital lending sector in Kenya, but there are several relevant regulators and laws that in total provide
partial regulation of digital lending in the country (Muli, A. K., 2020) and (Akinwale & Kyari, 2020) suggests that
proper regulatory measures by the relevant regulatory agency must be implemented to inculcate confidence and
trust in the end users. This would boost the level of adoption of Fintech among the end-users in Nigeria.
Therefore, it is necessary to make comprehensive regulations that regulate this so that public trust in the lend-
ing fintech company is higher. Some risks to be feared in fintech activities are credit risk, compliance risk, opera-
tional risk, and data security. On 10th August 2022, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a new regulatory
framework for digital lenders in India with immediate effect. As per the new guidelines, digital lending businesses
can only be carried out by entities regulated by the central bank or those permitted under law, and all loan disbursal
and repayments must be executed only between the borrower’s bank account and the RBI-regulated entities (REs),
and not through any third party. Therefore, these norms provide safeguards to the borrowers under the framework
and will also ensure that the interests of borrowers are protected and will increase consumer confidence in the
digital lending ecosystem.
The recommendation about First Loss Default Guarantee (FLDG) is ‘under examination’ with RBI and
Government may consider framing legislation for the Banning of Unregulated Lending Activities (BULA) which
would cover all entities not authorized by RBI.
RBI has also given in-principal approval to the regulatory framework of web aggregator of loan products and
also focuses on setting up of a Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO) for the digital lending ecosystem and DLAs
are required to adopt responsible advertising and marketing standards and should refrain from making misleading
claims.
dominance, and persistent digital divide and infrastructure-related issues (Buteau, 2021). In India, the biggest
challenge is to migrate the customers from traditional banking channels to digital channels and it is also important
to connect the unbanked masses with the mainstream banking system using digital finance. Undoubtedly, digital
mediums have increased the level of financial inclusion globally from 51 percent in 2011 to 69 percent in 2017
(Global Findex Database 2017) and the challenge for banks is to identify the most appropriate model of communi-
cation to interact with different segments of customers to convince them to adopt digital banking channels (Kaur et
al., 2021) accordingly, Due to cashless disruptions, financial institutions are not able to control customers’ experi-
ence transacting because of integration and FIs lose visibility and will have to aim at securing default card place
in the market (Gupta & Xia, 2018).
The central concern is the adverse effect of digital lending on the stability and integrity of credit markets (and
potentially the wider financial systems). New players with little experience enter the market and exploit regulatory
arbitrage, but often these players have no (or only a partial) obligation to report to respective systems for shar-
ing credit information or to supervisory bodies, which introduces severe vulnerabilities (Sommer, 2021). Fintech
lenders offer various financial products which cause a shift in consumer preference from traditional banks to new
tech-enabled Fintech lenders for depositing therefore FIs face a reduction in profitability and as the financial
product get offered individually, it will be tough for FIs to competitively compete, and provide cross-subsidy on
the products. However, (Elsaid, 2021)SSRN database and google scholar were used to find relevant research pa-
pers. The final sample included impactful papers about the effect of fintech activities on the banking and financial
services industry. Findings – The current paper indicated that while fintech firms would take some market share
away from banks, it is not expected that fintech firms would substitute banks. However, banks are required to ac-
celerate their adoption of innovations and advanced technology to compete with fintech firms. It is also proposed
that strategic partnerships and cooperation could happen between banks and fintech companies in a way that
benefits both sides. Originality/value – The present paper adds to the understanding of the effect of the fintech
firms’ growth on the banking industry in light of the emerging opportunities and threats for the financial sector.
The paper also provides guidance for fruitful research on the impact of fintech activities on social and economic
welfare in the future.”,”container-title”:”Qualitative Research in Financial Markets”,”DOI”:”10.1108/QRFM-10-
2020-0197”,”ISSN”:”1755-4179, 1755-4179”,”journalAbbreviation”:”QRFM”,”language”:”en”,”source”:”DOI.
org (Crossref found that it seems unlikely that fintech firms would replace traditional banks shortly due to the trust
of individuals in banks being more as compared to trust in Fintech firms.
Therefore, in this paper, the researcher found that there are some basic hurdles in digital lending such as lack
of financial literacy (Kangala & Priya, 2019; Chan et al., 2022) and the digital diversification between urban and
rural customers. Since 2014, the Government of India is promoting financial literacy and digitization of financial
transactions through various initiatives to build a digitized economy (Damodaran et al., 2019) Additionally, mass
awareness (Vijai, 2019; Kangala & Priya, 2019; Sivathanu, 2019) and internet bandwidth are still huge roadblocks
in India (Vijai, 2019; Sivathanu, 2019), further fintech introduces new challenges to consumers, lack of regular
electricity supply (Sivathanu, 2019), Issue of privacy and confidentiality was a primary source of concern among
the consumers (Sivathanu, 2019; Nasri & Charfeddine, 2012; Sangwan et al., 2019)
Therefore, the banks should improve their security and privacy to protect consumers’ personal and financial
information, which will increase the trust of users whereas (Chan et al., 2022) found that financial literacy nega-
tively affects initial trust also financial literacy does not affect people’s trust in Open Banking (Chan et al., 2022)
and (Kangala & Priya, 2019) discussed fintech opportunities and challenges in the business environment such as
lack of awareness, proper knowledge of their usage and functions, feeling traditional financial providers as more
reliable. (Alamelu, 2022) highlights privacy breaches & stringent recovery measures are some challenges faced
by customers while using digital lending. Many Indians are still reluctant to use these Internet services because of
security and safety issues (Ali & Kaur, 2015)
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Over the past few years, the business of banking has witnessed a shift from traditional branch banking to digital banking.
This shifting has been possible due to innovation in information Technology (IT), growth in mobile and internet
connectivity, market-based financial intermediation, and the advent of Fintech. Financial service providers are now
FINTECH LENDING IN INDIA: THE CHANGING PARADIGM OF BANKING 231
devising new products and services and are adopting new business models for reaching out to target customers But the
borrowers in India are still not aware, lack of financial literacy, privacy and security issues, and lack of trust regarding
fintech lending and from the financial institution point of view, challenges faced by adopting fintech lending is the rise
of non-performing assets, poor connectivity of the internet, and an increase in credit risk. On the regulatory front, the
advent of FinTech products and services necessitates new and complex regulatory requirements. In its recent guidelines,
RBI has laid down multiple points imploring the need for transparency in digital lending for borrowers. Therefore, these
norms provide safeguards to the borrowers under the framework and will also ensure that the interests of borrowers are
protected and will increase consumer confidence in the digital lending ecosystem but still RBI is working to make a full-
fledged regulatory framework by including all the aspects which are still under the examination by the RBI.
As per the past reviews, the researchers identified the growth of fintech lending as a threat to the banking
industry if they do not shift to digital lending on the other side others believe that fintech lending has become a
challenge that may be turned into an opportunity, as it provides flexibility, better functionality for some areas of
the banking industry and aggregation of services. It is important to note that RBI regulatory approach has been
redesigned to support and foster such innovation.
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