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Stream/Area:
-
Subject:
-
Paper ID:
IJSREM68317
Volume:
10 |
10 |
Oct 2026
Pages:
1-4
Publication Frequency:
Monthly (12 issues per year)
License:International Journal of Scientific Research in Engineering and Management follows the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) License, allowing free use and distribution with proper attribution.
Corporate law
SRM, university science and technology
India has become one of the world’s largest FinTech markets, built on public digital infrastructure such as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Aadhaar-based e-KYC and the Account Aggregator framework. Yet no single statute governs FinTech. Companies operate under a layered mix of banking, payment-systems, securities, data-protection and consumer law, administered by several regulators. This paper offers a conceptual and doctrinal study of that framework, of the governance mechanisms through which regulators supervise FinTech firms, and of the challenges now emerging. It examines the digital lending, payment aggregator and self-regulatory organisation frameworks of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) regime, the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 and recent measures of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and uses the 2024 action against Paytm Payments Bank as a governance case. The study finds a shift from entity-based licensing towards activity-based and contract-mediated regulation, and identifies fragmentation, data-protection overlap, digital-fraud liability, AI governance and abrupt policy shocks as the main open challenges. It closes with recommendations for a more coherent and proportionate regime.
KEYWORDS
India’s FinTech regulation has moved from permissive observation to detailed, activity-oriented supervision, with the RBI at the centre. The 2025 digital lending and payment aggregator directions, the DPDP Rules and the SRO-FT framework together mark a maturing regime built on accountable regulated entities, contractual extension of the perimeter and growing, though bounded, self-regulation. The challenges that remain are less about the absence of rules than about their coherence: overlapping data and payment requirements, unsettled fraud liability, new AI risks and the cost of abrupt policy change. A coordinated, proportionate and predictable framework will do more to sustain both innovation and consumer trust than additional rules issued in isolation.
[1] Argus Partners, “RBI (Digital Lending) Directions, 2025 – An overview,” May 28, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.argus-p.com/updates/updates/rbi-digital-lending-directions-2025-an-overview/ [2] AZB & Partners, “RBI (Digital Lending) Directions, 2025 – Same same, but different,” Jul. 17, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://webiis10.mondaq.com/india/financial-services/1651878/rbi-digital-lending-directions-2025-same-same-but-different [3] JSA, “New digital lending directions issued by the Reserve Bank of India,” JSA Prism | FinTech, May 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.jsalaw.com/?p=53594 [4] Reserve Bank of India, “RBI issues the Reserve Bank of India (Regulation of Payment Aggregators) Directions, 2025,” Press Release 2025-2026/1102, Sep. 15, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://rbi.org.in/Scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=6121 8 [5] AZB & Partners, “RBI issues consolidated Reserve Bank of India (Regulation of Payment Aggregators) Directions, 2025,” Sep. 17, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.azbpartners.com/bank/rbi-issues-consolidated-reserve-bank-of-india-regulation-of-payment-aggregators-directions-2025/ [6] Argus Partners, “RBI’s framework for self-regulatory organisations in the FinTech sector,” 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.argus-p.com/updates/updates/rbis-framework-for-self-regulatory-organisations-in-the-fintech-sector/ [7] Reserve Bank of India, “Action against Paytm Payments Bank Ltd under Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949,” Press Release 2023-2024/1774, Jan. 31, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=5722 4 [8] Reserve Bank of India, “Action against Paytm Payments Bank Ltd under Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 – Additional steps,” Feb. 2024. [Online]. Available: https://website.rbi.org.in/web/rbi/-/action-against-paytm-payments-bank-ltd-under-section-35a-of-the-banking-regulation-act-1949-additional-steps [9] Press Information Bureau, “DPDP Rules, 2025 notified: A citizen-centric framework for privacy protection and responsible data use,” Nov. 17, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/20 25/nov/doc20251117695301.pdf [10] AZB & Partners, “India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act: Phased rollout and key compliance milestones,” Nov. 14, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.azbpartners.com/?p=87799
Publication Date
10/26/2026
Peer Review Type
Double-Blind Peer Review
Review Rounds: 2
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