Fintech Brief — September 29, 2026

Today’s Top Stories

1. Supreme Court won’t stop the UPI fee — but the government must now defend it on affidavit

The UPI MDR survives its first court test: a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana on Monday refused an interim stay on the 0.4% merchant charge for UPI payments above ₹2,000, but issued notices to the Centre, RBI and NPCI returnable within four weeks. The October 15 rollout stands. The petition by advocate Anjan Datta challenges the September 14 gazette notification under Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act and the September 15 MDR framework — and LiveLaw reports the court wants the government to explain, on affidavit, the basis for ending nearly six years of free UPI. The government’s core defence: MDR affects only ~4% of merchant transactions, is neither a tax nor a government levy, and the money stays within the payments ecosystem — while P2P transfers (37% of volume, 70% of value) and small merchants stay free. The fine print still bites: a flat ₹5 for railways, telecom, insurance, fuel and agri inputs; 0.02% capped at ₹300 for mutual funds, securities and brokers. What the affidavit will have to reckon with: UPI carried 2,451 crore transactions worth ₹29.82 lakh crore in August 2026 alone — scale built on being free — and street resistance is organising, with mobile retailers’ “No UPI Day” set for October 2. Four weeks is the window in which the government’s cost study, if one exists, must surface.

2. Moneyview’s IPO closes at ~73x — institutions swamped the book on the last day

The ₹1,091.68-crore Moneyview IPO closed Monday at 72.96x overall, with the QIB book exploding from 0.25x after day two to 163.36x in the final official snapshot at 5:15 PM — after briefly touching 227x mid-afternoon. Small HNIs booked 108.48x; retail closed at 14.01x. Grey-market premium climbed to ~41%, implying a listing near ₹48 against the ₹34 upper band when shares debut October 1. The issue — ₹750 crore fresh plus ₹341.68 crore offer-for-sale by promoters and Accel, Tiger Global and Ribbit Capital, at a trimmed ~$624 million valuation — asks public investors to price a growth-over-margin digital lender (FY26 revenue up 43% to ₹3,351 crore; profit up just 1.2%) in the same fortnight its own merchant borrowers start paying MDR. Allotment finalises today.

3. HDFC Bank’s next chief: RBI’s call expected within days, and the market is pricing the transition

The RBI is expected to pick HDFC Bank’s next MD & CEO within 7–10 days, ahead of incumbent Sashidhar Jagdishan’s term ending October 26 — with ICICI Prudential Life’s Anup Bagchi the board’s first preference and Deputy MD Kaizad Bharucha the internal alternative. The regulator is doing unusual diligence: seeking feedback from IRDAI and ICICI Bank on Bagchi’s candidature given his three-year gap from mainstream banking. Jefferies argues the stock’s rerating “hinges on CEO transition and execution” — HDFC Bank is down ~27% this year, among the worst Nifty 50 performers. The regulator dislikes interim arrangements, so expect the name before the bank’s October 17 results, where the incoming CEO is expected to appear alongside Jagdishan.

4. The lending SRO fills its board with lenders: PhonePe and Navi chiefs join FACE

FACE, the RBI-recognised fintech self-regulatory organisation, on Monday elected Hemant Gala (CEO, PhonePe Lending) and Rajiv Naresh (MD & CEO, Navi) to its board as member directors — joining KreditBee’s Madhusudan Ekambaram, Uni Cards’ Nitin Gupta, Moneyview’s Sanjay Aggarwal and Vivriti Capital’s Vineet Sukumar. FACE writes the digital-lending conduct standards its members follow, so board composition is consumer policy by another name: every member director now sits atop a lending business. An SRO is only as tough as its least conflicted member — worth tracking how FACE’s next conduct code treats fee disclosure and recovery practices.

Also on the radar: Peak XV’s new Surge cohort backs 18 startups with the per-company seed ceiling raised to $5M — nearly half AI-native; and India’s seed funding fell 37% to $698M as investors concentrate on proven bets, per Tracxn.

Curated by the CashlessConsumer daily brief agent. All amounts as reported by linked sources.