Fadnavis wants to make Mumbai global fintech hub

Maharasthra Chief Minsiter Devendra Fadnavis plans to develop Mumbai as a global fintech hub. He made the announcement at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.

Fadnavis will announce the State Fintech Policy 2018 at the inaugural session of ‘Magnetic Maharashtra: Convergence 2018’ on February 18.

A snapshot of the policy document was unveiled by the Chief Minister along with Maharashtra Fintech Committee member and MD of Yes Bank, Rana Kapoor, at WEF, according to a tweet by Yes Bank, today. According to sources, Rana Kapoor is the only private sector representative on the panel to draft the policy.

The Fintech Policy builds on the recently launched Start-up Policy and endeavours to lighten regulatory and administrative hurdles, augment infrastructure, create an enabling ecosystem and environment and also build partnerships with global hubs.

Amit Shah, Head of Strategy at Yes Bank had told BusinessLine in a recent interview that the bank’s endeavour is to support the creation of a comprehensive support ecosystem — a fintech hub in Mumbai that will help in the creation of future skills, technology and jobs and bring the future into the present.

The bank had conducted a survey and presented its findings to the policymakers to take forward the ongoing dialogues among the government, the regulators and corporates, he had mentioned.

The country’s fintech segment, according to a Mckinsey report, is expected to create 21 million jobs and boost GDP by $700 billion by 2025.

With the fintech hub in place, the target, over a period of five years, is to scale and nurture over 5,000 fintechs across India, while creating over 2.5 lakh direct and indirect employment opportunities and bringing in ₹5,000 crores of investment into the sector.

The Maharastra government will also create innovation labs in Nashik, Nagpur and other key locations and centers of excellence in collaboration with industry and academia to provide support to the start-ups.