Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Shirish Chandra Murmu on Friday said India’s digital finance ecosystem has progressed from expanding access and achieving scale to a new phase where trust, resilience, customer protection and accountability must take centre stage.
Addressing the Global Fintech Fest 2026 here, Murmu said technology has fundamentally transformed the delivery of financial services but cannot replace the trust that underpins banking, payments, lending and digital identity systems.
“Trust is the bedrock of finance,” he said and noted that as financial services become increasingly digital, instantaneous and interconnected, maintaining confidence in the system becomes even more critical.
In addition, Murmu highlighted the growing complexity of the digital financial ecosystem where a single payment or loan transaction may involve multiple institutions, platforms, technology providers and algorithms. While customers experience simplicity, regulators must ensure accountability across the entire chain, he said.
Citing IMF data, the deputy governor said India has emerged as the world’s third-largest fintech ecosystem, with more than 14,000 entities and annual growth of around 14 per cent. Investments in the sector have crossed $40 billion over the past decade.
He pointed to the rapid expansion of digital finance through initiatives such as Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar, mobile connectivity and interoperable payment infrastructure. UPI alone processed about 24,162 crore transactions worth nearly Rs 314 lakh crore in FY26 and accounted for roughly 85 per cent of digital payment volumes.
At the same time, Murmu cautioned that the scale of digital finance has heightened risks, making operational resilience, cybersecurity, fraud prevention and customer protection key priorities. He said payment systems operating round the clock require robust recovery mechanisms, while cybersecurity must be viewed as a systemic responsibility rather than merely an IT function.
The RBI is strengthening anti-fraud efforts through measures such as the exclusive “.bank.in” domain, a proposed digital payments intelligence platform and the MuleHunter.AI initiative to identify mule accounts.
Murmu also stressed that inclusion must extend beyond smartphone users and that technology-driven lending cannot dilute the accountability of regulated entities. “Technology can distribute a service, but it cannot distribute responsibility,” he said.
(IANS)
