Praising the achievement of India’s banking sector for making financial services accessible to millions and driving economic growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said there was a time when in rural areas, it used to take more than a day to access a banking service but today, banks have gone to every Indian’s mobile phones.

“The transformations by fintechs in India are not limited to technology, but the social impact is very high, the bridge between rural and urban is built through it. There were times when banking services used to take the whole day and for farmers, fishermen or the middle class, this was a big hassle. Fintechs have removed this problem, banks were earlier limited to a building but today, banks have gone to every Indian’s mobile phones,” the PM said at the Global FinTech Fest in Mumbai.

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He stated earlier India was appreciated and looked upto for its cultural diversity but now it is appreciated for its fintech diversity as well.

“Cash was earlier the king but today all citizens from urban to rural India are doing real time digital transactions. All over the World, India’s UPI has been the biggest example of fintech innovation,” PM Modi asserted.

”But in the past decade, we’ve connected the population of the size of the European Union to the banking system,” he said.

PM Modi also praised the transformation by FinTechs in India as well as the innovations by the youth and what the rural reach India has achieved with the help of fintechs.

The Prime Minister said the FinTechs in India have grown by a massive 500 per cent over the past decade and that investments in the fintech sector were more than Rs 31 billion in the past 10 years.

“The FinTech ecosystem will increase the ease of living of the world and I believe in the talent of the youth of the country, our best is yet to come,” he said.

FinTechs have democratised financial services and have made access to credit easy and inclusive. The FinTech transformation in India is like no other country and a major credit of this is to India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), the Prime Minister said.

Highlighting policy changes, the PM said, “We’ve scrapped the angel tax, established an INR 1 lakh crore fund for research and innovation, and enacted the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act. These steps are crucial for fostering innovation while ensuring that regulations don’t hinder the growth of FinTechs.”

He also addressed global concerns about AI misuse, stating, “India will lead in creating a global framework for the ethical use of AI. At the same time, we’re focused on building a sustainable economy, with green finance playing a key role in supporting sustainable growth.”