[Ritvij Ratn Tiwari is a 5th-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru] In February 2024, the Reserve Bank of India (‘RBI’) moved decisively to curtail the operations of certain fintech companies, particularly Business Payment Service Providers (‘BPSPs’), by labelling their activities as unauthorized “payment systems” under the Payment...
RBI’s Revised Master Directions on Peer-to-Peer Lending: Shift in Regulatory Policy
[Sourav Paul is a final year student at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata] In recent years, the fintech industry in India has witnessed significant growth, particularly within the digital lending sector. A prominent example is the peer-to-peer (‘P2P’) lending model, which has expanded rapidly in India, supported by a favourable regulatory environment. P2P lending...
Export-Import Regulations Do Not Ease Doing Business
[Jayesh H practises at the Trifecta of Law, Finance & Governance, and thanks Muskaan Shah for assisting with this post] The recent draft of the Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Goods and Services) Regulations, 2024, issued by the Reserve Bank of India, has been projected as an initiative to streamline the export and import processes. Its primary objective is to enhance the...
Unravelling RBI’s Climate Disclosure Mandate: A Step towards Financial Sustainability?
[Shivam Bhattacharya is a 5th year and Subhasish Pamegam is a 3rd year law student at Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar] In a significant development, the Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) has published the ‘Draft Disclosure Framework on Climate-related Financial Risks, 2024’. The framework mandates the Indian financial institutions (“FIs”) to incorporate climate-related assessments into...
Downstream Investments by FOCCs – Resolving the Regulatory Conundrum
[Roshan Cyriac is a 4th-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] Foreign investors can invest in India directly through foreign direct investment (FDI) or through an entity owned and controlled by it (FOCC). An FOCC is a company incorporated in India but owned and controlled by a (non-resident) foreign company. When a non-resident transfers shares in Indian...
Navigating RBI’s Payment Aggregator Directives: A Merchant Perspective
[Pratishtha Shrivastava is a 3rd Year B.A.,LL.B student at Institute of Law, Nirma University] In a recent development, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposed draft directions for the regulation of payment aggregators (PAs), specifically those handling physical point-of-sale (PoS) services. A PA is a third-party service provider that lets consumers pay retailers. Some significant PAs in India...
Currency Derivatives Market in Transition: A Deep Dive into RBI’s Regulatory Intervention
[Palash Varyani is a 3rd-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at the Institute of Law, Nirma University, Ahmedabad] India’s currency derivatives market is undergoing a profound transformation following the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) recent directive, set to be enforced on May 3. Brokers are advising clients to square off rupee derivatives positions as the regulatory landscape undergoes a...
RBI Tweaks Norms on Investments in AIFs: A Breather to the Regulated Lenders
[Srishti Multani and Aryan Birewar are 4th year BBA LLB (Hons.) students at Symbiosis Law School, Pune] On 27 March 2024, the Reserve Bank of India (‘RBI’) released a notification (‘Revised Notification’) relaxing certain directions given to regulated entities (‘RE’) in the notification (‘Previous Notification’) dated 19 December 2023 after due consultation with the stakeholders and industry...
Settling the Jurisdictional Conundrum: Navigating the App Developers v. Google Judgement
[Sanjana Rebecca Samuel is a 4th year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at Symbiosis Law School, Pune] On 19 January 2024, the Madras High Court dismissed the suit filed by several app developers against Google. The developers asserted that Google’s policies within the Play Store contravened stipulations and directives outlined in the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (“PSS Act”). Additionally...
Open Questions on RBI’s Enforcement Actions in Indian Fintech
“God may be in the details, but the goddess is in the questions. Once we begin to ask them, there’s no turning back.” – Gloria Steinem Over the last month and a half, the enforcement actions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) with respect to Paytm and in relation to certain payment arrangements through corporate cards have raised substantive questions of law, facts and due process. This...
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