RBI

Fintech Brief — June 12, 2026 Zelle Picks India as First International Market, Launches ZelleUSD Stablecoin Early Warning Services, the operator of the Zelle peer-to-peer payment network owned by major U.S. banks (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo), announced that India will be the first country where U.S. consumers can send money overseas using Zelle — marking the network’s first international expansion since launching nearly a decade ago. The company called India a “natural starting point” for its global ambitions: roughly a third of all remittances sent to India each year originate from the United States, according to RBI data. The move directly targets the India-U.S. remittance corridor, which is one of the largest in the world. ...

Fintech Brief — June 08, 2026 Today’s Top Stories 1. RBI Signs Cross-Border Digital Payments MoU with Vietnam; UPI International Network Expands The Reserve Bank of India and the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance cooperation in digital payments, fintech development, and payment system connectivity. Approved by the Union Cabinet, the MoU focuses on enabling cross-border QR code-based merchant payments between India and Vietnam, making transactions more seamless and cost-effective for businesses, tourists, and consumers. The agreement builds on India’s broader strategy of exporting its digital public infrastructure — UPI now has live linkages with Nepal, UAE, Singapore, Bhutan, France, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Peru, and Cambodia (launched June 2). Economic Times PIB ...

Fintech Weekly Deep Dive — India’s Capital Account Blitz | Week of June 1–7, 2026 Executive Summary In the most dramatic week for Indian macroeconomic policy since the 2013 taper-tantrum defence, the Reserve Bank of India and the Union government unveiled an unprecedented, multi-pronged assault on the crumbling rupee. Between June 3 and June 6, a coordinated barrage of measures landed: the government scrapped all capital gains and withholding taxes on foreign investment in government bonds via an ordinance, the RBI announced it would bear the full hedging cost on fresh FCNR(B) deposits, NRI equity investment limits were doubled, the Fully Accessible Route for government securities was expanded to include ultra-long bonds, export realisation timelines were restored, and the central bank continued its aggressive dollar-selling interventions that have consumed an estimated $12 billion in gold reserves over two weeks. ...

The Bank That Became Your Phone, the Phone That Became Your Bank, and the Algorithm That Decided You Deserve Neither June 6, 2036 — Good morning. I say that not because it is a good morning, but because my bank-slash-mobile-provider-slash-credit-bureau-slash-algorithmic-pricing-engine told me to say it. My sentiment score affects my interest rate. Let me explain. Headlines From the Golden Age of Convenience “Monzo Launches Mobile Network: ‘We Already Own Your Money, Now We Own Your Signal’” “UK FCA to Regulate BNPL on July 15 — Consumers Shocked to Learn They Were Borrowing Money This Whole Time” “TrueLayer Acquires BNPL Firm In3: ‘We’ll Take Your Money Now OR Later, Your Choice (Not Really)’" “New York Passes One Fair Price Act: Algorithmic Pricing Banned, Except for the 4,700 Exemptions Already Written Into It” “RBI Mandates Weekly Credit Reporting: Miss One Payment, Your Score Updates Before You Even Finish Reading the Default Notice” “Colorado Governor Vetoes Surveillance Pricing Ban: ‘It’s Not Surveillance, It’s… Personalized Value Creation’” The Bank That Ate Your Phone Back in 2026, a British neobank called Monzo decided that being your bank wasn’t enough. It needed to be your mobile network too1. ...

Fintech Deep Dive — Thursday | June 04, 2026 Theme: International & Cross-Border | Covering developments from May 28 – June 4, 2026 1. UPI Goes Live in Cambodia: India-KHQR Cross-Border QR Payment Linkage On June 2, 2026, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) and ACLEDA Bank Plc. officially launched Phase 1 of the cross-border QR payment linkage between India and Cambodia, enabling Indian travellers to scan Cambodia’s national QR code — KHQR — and pay at over 4.5 million merchant outlets across the country using their regular UPI apps. ...

Fintech Brief — June 03, 2026 India-Cambodia Launch Cross-Border QR Payments via UPI India’s UPI has added another international corridor. On June 2, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) and Cambodia’s ACLEDA Bank officially launched Phase 1 of the India-Cambodia cross-border QR code payment linkage at a ceremony in Phnom Penh, presided over by Cambodia’s central bank governor and an RBI representative. In this first phase, Indian travellers can scan Cambodia’s KHQR codes to make payments directly from their UPI-enabled apps. This builds on NIPL’s expanding international footprint — UPI linkages are already live with Sri Lanka, Nepal, UAE, Singapore, Mauritius, and others under India’s DPI diplomacy push. ...

Fintech Weekly Deep Dive — Cash Withdrawals Surge & RBI Liquidity Challenge | Week of May 10-17, 2026 Executive Summary India’s central bank is confronting an unexpected and potentially significant development: cash withdrawals are surging at rates that threaten to undermine liquidity management, with currency in circulation hitting a record ₹42.3 trillion ($640 million increase in just 15 days). This trend runs counter to the narrative of digital payment dominance and suggests that India’s payment landscape remains more nuanced than commonly portrayed. The RBI’s liquidity surplus—currently averaging around 1% of deposits—faces the risk of rapid erosion as cash withdrawals accelerate, potentially forcing monetary policy recalibrations at a time when the central bank is already grappling with inflationary pressures from elevated oil prices and geopolitical instability. For fintech companies, this trend presents both challenges and opportunities: cash remains a critical fallback payment method for millions of consumers, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas, while digital-first players must adapt to a more complex liquidity environment that blurs the line between cash and digital payment ecosystems. ...

Fintech Weekly Deep Dive — KreditBee Unicorn + India’s Lending Reboot | Week of April 5-12, 2026 Executive Summary India’s digital lending sector marked a decisive turnaround this week as KreditBee joined the unicorn club with a $280 million Series E funding round, achieving a $1.5 billion valuation1. The fundraise — co-led by Hornbill Capital, MUFG-backed Dragon Funds, and Motilal Oswal Alternates — represents the largest single financing for an Indian lending startup in 2026 and signals a clear inflection point for a sector that endured over two years of regulatory scrutiny and funding drought2. ...

Welcome to Cashless Watch, where we watch the cashless future unfold—so you don’t have to. 📰 The Future Headlines “Youth Credit Score Drops to 450 After Stacking 47 BNPL Plans Across 12 Apps” “RBI Fines LazyPay ₹12 Crore for ‘Zero Interest’ Loans That Cost ₹8,000 in Hidden Fees” “Woman’s Loan App Accesses Her Gallery, Finds Evidence of ‘Financial Irresponsibility’” “Government Launches ‘Fintech Literacy’ Program: Now Mandatory in Schools” The Interest-Free Prison A citizen’s memoir from the year of free credit ...

Fintech Weekly Deep Dive — RBI’s New Fraud Protection Framework | Week of March 9, 2026 Executive Summary The Reserve Bank of India has unveiled its most significant consumer protection overhaul for digital banking in nearly a decade. Announced on March 8, 2026, the draft Third Amendment Directions, 2026 introduce a landmark compensation mechanism that will provide up to 85% reimbursement (capped at Rs 25,000) for victims of small-value digital banking frauds involving amounts up to Rs 50,000. This one-time benefit, available once per customer lifetime, represents a paradigm shift in how India’s financial regulator approaches consumer protection in an era of rapid digital payment adoption. 1 ...