The Delhi High Court Wednesday sought response of the Centre, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a detailed legal framework for regulating operations of techfin companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon in India’s financial sector space.
As the petition filed by an economist, techfin entities are technology, telecommunications or e-commerce companies that have ventured into the financial sector to provide financial services and need to be regulated.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan issued notice to the ministries of finance and law as also RBI, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Irda, Sebi and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) seeking their stand on the plea by Resmi P Bhaskaran in her plea filed through advocate Deepak Prakash, has alleged that the “lackadaisical approach” of Indian financial regulators permits unregulated operation of techfin firms and claims that this could adversely affect the financial stability of the country.