Compiled By: Ashish Goyal, Co-Founder and CFO at Fibe
About Ashish: As CFO, Ashish oversees the strategic direction of the company and focuses on building a diverse and deep funding profile. He is responsible for expanding Fibe’s business, strengthening its market position, and integrating the company’s overall growth strategy alongside Co-Founder Akshay Mehrotra.
India ranks among the world’s largest and fastest-moving FinTech markets. Alongside China, India leads in FinTech adoption. Digital payments, which amounted to roughly $65 billion in 2019, were projected to grow at a CAGR of about 20% through 2023. The Worldline India Digital Payments Report noted that UPI transactions surged—volume rose by more than 82% and value by nearly 99% in Q2 of the 2020–21 financial year—highlighting the rapid shift toward digital payments.
Below are five key trends from 2021 that were poised to shape India’s FinTech landscape and accelerate financial inclusion, efficiency, and innovation.
OCEN
The Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) is a government-driven initiative designed to boost credit access and inclusion. OCEN is a framework of APIs that connects lenders, Loan Service Providers (LSPs), and account aggregators, enabling seamless sharing of credit-related information and credit lifecycle actions. Once fully operational, OCEN is expected to simplify MSME lending by reducing friction, lowering information costs, and speeding up credit decisions. Its potential impact on access to formal credit is comparable, in scope, to the transformation Aadhaar enabled for identity verification.
Account Aggregator
Account Aggregators (AAs) act as consent managers that facilitate secure sharing of financial information between institutions with user permission. Licensed by the Reserve Bank of India, AAs do not retain user data, which reduces the risk of data leakage and misuse. By enabling users to share consolidated financial information safely, AAs are set to change how people manage finances, file taxes, and access personalised financial advice.
Wealth managers and financial advisory firms stand to gain substantially. With authorised access to consolidated, consent-based financial data, these firms can analyse client needs faster, offer more accurate recommendations, and lower service costs—improving product relevance and customer outcomes.
Digitisation Adoption
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital adoption across financial services as consumers and businesses adapted to remote interactions. FinTech innovators expanded the digital footprint of financial products, unlocking opportunities to reach wider customer bases and build robust digital relationships. At Fibe, we introduced the nation’s first end-to-end digital card, SalaryCard, designed to meet modern salary customers’ needs with features such as:
- Flexible tenure options for repayments.
- EMI shopping available at any retailer.
- Potential savings of up to 12,000 INR annually, with no subscription, annual, or renewal fees.
Such product innovations reflect how digitisation enables convenience, transparency, and cost savings for consumers.
New Age Technologies
Emerging technologies and streamlined KYC regimes—like Video KYC (VKYC) and Central KYC (CKYC)—have simplified onboarding and improved customer experience. As customers avoided physical branches during the pandemic, digital identity and verification tools allowed financial institutions to complete compliance remotely and securely.
- VKYC – Video KYC replaces traditional in-person verification by enabling remote identity checks through video interaction and digital document submission. This reduces the need for physical presence while keeping compliance standards intact.
- CKYC – The Central KYC registry centralises customer KYC records across financial services, easing document submission and reducing redundancy when starting new relationships with financial firms.
ML and AI changing the game
Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming many facets of finance. Big data plus advanced algorithms enable better fraud detection, credit scoring, model validation, and stress testing. ML models can process vast amounts of transactional and behavioral data in near real time, spotting anomalies and fraudulent attempts more accurately than traditional rule-based systems. For example, real-time transaction monitoring flags suspicious card transactions instantly, helping prevent fraud.
Banks and FinTechs can also leverage AI-driven analytics to personalise offers, optimise risk assessment, and accelerate decisioning—improving customer engagement while managing portfolio risk more effectively.
Conclusion
The FinTech sector in 2021 showed strong momentum, driven by payment growth, regulatory innovation, and rapid digitisation. Success for these trends will be measured by improved customer experience, faster response to change, expanded credit access, and secure, consent-driven data sharing. As technologies like OCEN, Account Aggregators, VKYC/CKYC, and AI/ML mature, they will continue to reshape financial services—making them more inclusive, efficient, and customer-centric.