Fintech Brief — November 2, 2026

Today’s Top Stories

RBI and FIU move against offshore crypto cards that slipped into Indian wallets

Pre-paid crypto cards from international fintech providers such as RedotPay — which let Indian residents spend stablecoins held in offshore wallets on everyday domestic purchases, from online shopping and mobile recharges to flight bookings — have come under the scrutiny of the RBI and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). To merchants the cards look like ordinary Indian bank debit cards on Visa and Mastercard rails, with wallet balances quietly converted into rupees at settlement — which means the transactions can bypass the visibility of Indian banks, the regulator and the tax department. The cards cost $40-50, are valid three years, and carry high daily limits. Over the past few days, several Indian users’ card access and provider websites have been blocked, with authorities reportedly examining violations of payment regulations and FEMA; the crackdown may have been triggered by alerts from Digital South Trust, a Bengaluru-based blockchain research organisation. Economic Times

Consumer takeaway: paying with crypto is prohibited in India, and cards that route around KYC and FEMA leave you with no regulatory recourse if funds vanish or access is cut overnight. If you hold one, treat it as dead weight — and note that using it for undisclosed crypto spend is exactly the trail FIU is now reconstructing.

UPI logs its first ₹1 lakh crore average day — as the MDR clock resumes

October was UPI’s biggest month ever: 2,547 crore transactions worth ₹31.53 lakh crore — up 23% and 16% year-on-year — making it the first month above the ₹30 lakh crore mark, with the average daily value crossing ₹1 lakh crore for the first time (September’s record was about ₹98,000 crore). Festive-season spending powered the surge, at roughly 821 million transactions a day. Moneycontrol · The Statesman · Economic Times

The records land just as the payments ecosystem braces for the merchant discount rate (MDR) on larger UPI payments, which NPCI postponed in its October 13 statement until immediately after Diwali (the festival falls in the second week of November), with a revised date to be notified separately. LocalCircles founder Sachin Taparia estimates the charge could shave about 4% off volumes and nearly 10% off monthly value once it kicks in. Financial Express Consumer takeaway: payments under ₹2,000 and all peer-to-peer transfers stay free — the change bites high-value merchant payments, so watch what your bank and merchant pass through at Diwali’s tail.

SGB 2021-22 Series VII early exit opens today: ₹4,715 becomes ₹14,167

The five-year premature redemption window for Sovereign Gold Bond 2021-22 Series VII opens today, at a price fixed by RBI at ₹14,167 per unit — the simple average of gold’s closing price over October 28-30. Against the issue price of ₹4,715 per gram (online; ₹4,765 offline), that is an absolute capital gain of about 200%, before the 2.5% annual interest paid half-yearly along the way — a ₹1 lakh online investment has grown to roughly ₹3 lakh. Holders who want out can exercise the option at their issuing bank; those content to hold to maturity (eight years) keep earning interest on the metal’s ride. Economic Times · Mint · Moneycontrol

Quick hits

  • IDBI Bank staff strike today and tomorrow: More than 10,000 employees under the United Forum of IDBI Officers & Employees begin a two-day nationwide strike on November 2-3 against the proposed privatisation — the sale of a 60.72% government stake to Fairfax Financial for ₹52,878 crore — with bank unions nationwide joining solidarity protests. Branch services may be hit; digital channels keep running. Moneycontrol
  • Navi-Prosus formally cleared: The CCI’s formal approval of Prosus’ $100 million investment in Sachin Bansal-led Navi — the fintech’s first institutional raise, announced in August — came through in a release on Saturday via MIH Payments Holdings BV. It caps a subdued funding month: October saw no deal above $100 million, and the last full week delivered about $115 million across 29 deals. PTI/Rediff · Economic Times · YourStory
  • Binance says it has covered 90% of the record $6.3 billion hack: The exchange reported replenishing nine-tenths of the stolen amount and resumed withdrawals on November 1 as promised — context for the offshore-card scrutiny above, since Indian regulators are watching exactly this kind of cross-border crypto flow. Reuters