Daily Brief

Fintech Brief — August 15, 2026 Bank of America Plugs ₹18,268 Crore into Jio Credit in Landmark India Fintech JV Bank of America has agreed to acquire up to 49.9% of Jio Credit Limited — Jio Financial Services’ digital lending arm — for up to ₹18,268 crore (~$1.9 billion), marking the largest single foreign investment in an Indian NBFC this year. BofA gets an initial 26.5% equity stake via preferential allotment, with warrants that can push ownership to 49.9% within 18 months. The board will be split equally between JFS and BofA. Jio Credit has built AUM of ₹30,667 crore (~$3.2 billion) in just two years of operations. ...

Fintech Brief — August 14, 2026 RBI Drafts Harmonised Loan-Interest Rules for Banks and NBFCs The Reserve Bank of India on August 13 released draft “Interest Rates on Loans and Advances Directions, 2026” — its most comprehensive attempt yet to bring banks, NBFCs, cooperative banks, and regional rural banks under a single loan-pricing framework. 1 Key provisions: lenders must disclose benchmark lending rates on the first working day of every month; floating-rate loans must be reviewed at least once every three months; any change in spread over the benchmark requires the borrower’s informed consent; and reset periods cannot exceed 12 months. Personal loans and MSME loans from commercial banks must be linked to external benchmarks. ...

Fintech Brief — August 12, 2026 RBI Governor: AI Could Do for Lending What UPI Did for Payments RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra delivered a landmark address at the FIBAC 2026 conference in Mumbai, declaring that AI could reshape banking the way liberalisation did in the 1990s and digitalisation did in the 2010s. He urged banks to move beyond pilot projects and adopt AI as a core strategic capability. Key takeaways: Credit inclusion: AI models using alternative data — cash flows, GST filings, utility payments — can expand the “frontier of bankability” by assessing borrowers without traditional credit histories. Digital Payment Intelligence Platform: The RBI will build a new platform to help banks deploy AI/ML for detecting increasingly sophisticated digital payment fraud (Storyboard18). Human oversight is non-negotiable: Malhotra warned that banks cannot transfer responsibility for decisions to AI systems or vendors. Boards must approve AI governance frameworks, and banks should conduct red-team exercises and stress tests on models. UPI as foundation: India’s DPI stack — UPI, Aadhaar, Account Aggregators, ULI — gives banks a unique structural advantage to build AI-driven financial services. The Governor also revealed that BRICS nations are discussing linking fast payment systems with digital currencies, signalling continued momentum for cross-border UPI expansion. ...

Fintech Brief — August 11, 2026 RBI Finalises Landmark Recovery Guidelines for NBFCs — Device-Locking Gets Strict Guardrails The RBI issued its Third Amendment Directions to the NBFC — Responsible Business Conduct framework on August 6 (Notification DOR.MCS.REC.No.199/01-01-039/2026-27), effective 1 January 2027. The final text transforms debt recovery from an outsourced back-office function into a governed, audited, and accountable process. Key provisions: Device-locking rules: NBFCs financing smartphones/laptops may only restrict devices tied to the specific loan, after 30 days past due. Full restrictions kick in at 60 days. Essential functions — incoming calls, SMS, emergency SOS — can never be cut off. Unlocking must happen within one hour of payment; wrongful delays attract compensation of ₹250 per hour, capped at the loan amount. No data access: Neither the NBFC nor its tech partner may access personal data (contacts, photos, location) on the borrower’s device. Recovery agent certification: All agents must hold an IIBF Debt Recovery Agents certificate. Existing agents get a one-year grace period. Transparency: NBFCs must publish empanelled recovery agencies on their websites. Borrowers must be notified of agency details at least one day before in-person visits. Contact hours restricted to 8 AM–7 PM. Borrower distress framework: Lenders must build a documented pre-escalation engagement process — a pause before pressure — for borrowers in genuine financial difficulty. Why it matters: This is the RBI’s most comprehensive recovery governance framework. Device-financing NBFCs and small-ticket digital lenders face the biggest compliance lift. With barely four months to the January 1 deadline, NBFCs need to start re-papering loan agreements, re-onboarding vendors, and building grievance channels now. ...

Fintech Brief — August 10, 2026 SEBI’s Closing Auction Session Survives a Rocky First Week SEBI’s Closing Auction Session (CAS) — the new mechanism replacing VWAP-based closing price discovery — completed its first week of operations on August 8, and it was anything but smooth. The 20-minute auction window (3:15–3:35 pm), introduced for stocks with listed derivatives from August 3, triggered widespread confusion among retail traders and brokers unfamiliar with the new order-matching logic. ...

Fintech Brief — August 09, 2026 RBI Proposes Barring NBFCs from Revolving Credit — Flexi Loans Under Threat The Reserve Bank of India has released draft amendments to its Credit Facilities Directions, 2026, proposing to restrict non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to term loans only — effectively banning revolving credit facilities. If finalised, this would eliminate flexi-loans, overdraft-style facilities, and digital credit lines that have become staples of NBFC-fintech partnerships. The proposal builds on the Credit Facilities Directions issued in November 2025 and aims to create sharper structural distinctions between loan products. The RBI has invited stakeholder comments by August 28, 2026. ...

Fintech Brief — August 08, 2026 Lok Sabha Passes Bill Opening Door to UPI Merchant Charges The Lok Sabha passed the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 on August 7, amending the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 to remove the legal bar that prohibited banks and payment service providers from levying charges on notified electronic payment modes — including UPI. The amendment replaces Section 10A’s reference to Section 269SU of the Income Tax Act with a provision authorising the Central Government to notify specific electronic payment modes where charges may be permitted. Crucially, no MDR rate or implementation timeline has been announced yet — the Bill only creates the legal framework for a future decision. ...

Fintech Brief — August 07, 2026 Lok Sabha Clears Bill Paving Way for UPI Charges The Lok Sabha passed a bill amending Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, enabling the government to permit banks and payment systems to levy charges on UPI transactions. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman clarified that end-users will not face charges — the framework targets merchant-side MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) recovery. The actual MDR policy will be set by NPCI’s UPI Services Steering Committee after the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 becomes law. ...

Fintech Brief — August 06, 2026 RBI Holds Repo Rate at 5.25%, Raises GDP Forecast to 6.7% The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee unanimously kept the benchmark repo rate unchanged at 5.25% at its August 3–5 meeting, retaining its neutral stance. Governor Sanjay Malhotra, however, delivered an optimistic macroeconomic upgrade: the FY27 real GDP growth forecast was raised to 6.7% (from 6.6%), while the CPI inflation projection was lowered to 5.0% (from 5.1%). ...

Fintech Brief — August 04, 2026 Government Opens the Door to UPI Merchant Charges via Payments Act Amendment The Union government has proposed amending Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 — the clause that currently imposes a blanket ban on charging fees for UPI transactions. The amendment, clubbed under the Taxation And Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, would replace the universal prohibition with a narrower exemption: only government-notified online payment modes would be MDR-free. Everything else — including UPI for large merchants — could attract a Merchant Discount Rate. ...