Bank partnerships are falling apart, raising concerns over many fintech business models in India, while regulatory scrutiny and conflicting product lines heighten the pressure.
The idea behind most of the fintech industry is to revolutionize and/or disrupt financial services as we know it, with one common target being banking.
On the flip side, though, for several types of fintech startups in India, banks are invaluable and unavoidable partners. What, then, happens if a bank decides to just walk away?
Increasingly, this has happened with larger and even mid-sized banks going easy on partnerships with neobanking fintechs—which essentially relied on banks to hold customers’ actual accounts. Now, the tussle seems to be escalating to at least a couple of card startups too.
IDFC First Bank …
Arti is a former writer at The Morning Context. She previously worked with publications such as ET Prime, VCCircle, Firstpost and EETimes. Arti has keenly tracked the evolution of financial technology in India and written some of the defining pieces on the ecosystem as it birthed and matured. Even when not writing about it, she loves to dissect the revenue models, margins and regulations that are shaping the sector.
artisingh@mailtmc.com