MUMBAI: Marking his third consecutive appearance at the premier industry event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today officially inaugurated the Global Fintech Fest 2026 in Mumbai. Addressing a global gathering of innovators, leaders, and investors, the Prime Minister highlighted the dynamic evolution of India’s fintech landscape and its vital role in the journey toward a Viksit Bharat.
Contrasting global economic uncertainties—marked by geopolitical conflicts and supply chain pressures—with India’s robust 7.8 percent growth during the April–June quarter, the Prime Minister pointed to recent validation from international markets, including a Japanese credit rating agency upgrading India’s sovereign rating to the A- category after three decades.
“This hat-trick shows how important you are for a Viksit Bharat, how important your work is,” remarked PM Modi, emphasizing the immense risk-taking capacity and energy of the nation’s youth.
A Decade of UPI: From Local Innovation to Global Footprint
Marking ten years since the inception of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the Prime Minister reflected on how early skepticism from financial elites has given way to mass adoption, with transactions crossing 24 billion in August alone.
Echoing French President Emmanuel Macron’s sentiment, PM Modi noted that UPI has transcended technology to become a “civilizational story.” Having successfully penetrated unbanked regions where traditional bank branches could not reach, UPI is now live in 11 countries.
Looking ahead, the Prime Minister set a strategic mandate to integrate UPI with domestic payment systems worldwide, reducing remittance costs for the Indian diaspora:
“Wherever Indians live in large numbers, wherever India trades on a large scale, whichever country in the world is ready to walk with us, we have to work to connect them all,” directed PM Modi.
A Four-Point Roadmap for the Next Chapter of Fintech
Challenging the industry to view current milestones as a starting point rather than a destination, the Prime Minister outlined key areas for future growth:
- Expanding Beyond Payments to Credit: Urging the sector to bridge micro-economic credit gaps, PM Modi called for leveraging transaction histories to extend tailored loans, savings, insurance, and pension products to small businesses, street vendors, and gig workers. He highlighted the success of the PM SVANidhi scheme—extended until 2030—which has boosted vendor incomes by over 20%.
- Embracing Frontier Technologies: Welcoming cutting-edge advancements, he challenged developers to turn emerging possibilities in Agentic AI, Tokenization, and Quantum computing into tangible societal impact.
- Establishing Global Standards: Urging the industry to move away from historical reliance on foreign card standards, the Prime Minister expressed confidence in India’s ability to create independent indigenous rules and protocols.
- Four-Point Safety Mandate: To secure international trust, PM Modi directed fintech firms to prioritize top-notch cybersecurity, ethical data protection standards, a robust regulatory innovation ecosystem, and a transparent fintech consumer protection index.
Concluding his address with a message of relentless progress, the Prime Minister urged leaders to maintain core values of scale, security, and public trust while building the next generation of financial solutions.
