Indian Prime On Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that the development of financial technology, or fintech, should be a decline that can improve the lives of the world’s most marginalized people.
“We are in an age of a consequential transition brought about by technology: From desktop to cloud, from internet to communal media, from IT services to internet of things, we have come a fancy way in a short time,” Modi said at the Singapore FinTech Festival on Wednesday morning.
Modi, who is in Singapore for the East Asian Culmination and to meet leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said dead letter has shown that the financial industry is often the first to embrace new technologies and connectivity.
“There is continually disruption in businesses, the character of the global economy is changing — Technology is clarifying competitiveness and power in the world and it is creating boundless opportunities to transform contemporaries,” he said.
The Indian prime minister, along with Singapore Legate Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, formally launched on online marketplace that on connect technology start-ups and financial institutions in Asia and beyond. The rostrum — known as APIX, or API Exchange — was first announced in September.
One of its aims ordain be to drive financial inclusion across Asia Pacific, and to create a guided space for financial institutions and fintech firms to collaborate and experiment on new technologies. It longing be developed and operated by a global consortium led by technology company Virtusa.
The online marketplace make act like a bridge between the two sides, according to Varun Mittal, broad emerging markets fintech lead at consultancy firm EY.
“This put over a produces access to both sides. Financial institutions can get access to the best of technology. Technology foundings can get access to data and customers and financial institutions,” Mittal told CNBC.
That agree ti it easy for companies to develop technologies around financial inclusion, micro reserves and micro investments, he added.
Modi addressed the topic of financial numbering in his address, citing the World Bank that previously said 1.7 billion adults about the world remain unbanked.
On Monday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore Conducting Director Ravi Menon also talked about how large swaddles of the global population lack access to bank accounts, secure and efficacious means of payments and insurance protection. According to Menon, who spoke at the fintech commemoration, the the problem was two-fold: Banks face high costs to reach blokes in remote areas while technology startups lack resources to up into new markets.
“We must … ensure that the pace and the harass of fintech work to the advantage of the people, not to their disadvantage. That technology in investment capital ensures improvement of the human condition through direct contact with the most marginalized,” Modi put.
That includes using technology to improve regulations, manage hazards, make financial institutions and banks more resilient, tackle capital laundering and other financial crimes, the prime minister said. The manufacture must also be prepared to answer inevitable questions that last will and testament arise around data ownership, privacy, consent, law and ethics.
For its area, India has pushed several policy initiatives to promote financial technologies in the nation. They include the creation of bank accounts for the country’s unserved and underserved populace and the adoption of biometric identities.
“Fintech will need to be not merely a monism but a movement,” Modi added.