FinTech is a growing sector within the technology industry worldwide.India, China, Russia, South Africa, Ireland, the UK, Netherlands, Australia, Mexico Brazil, Peru and Columbia lead the world in terms of FinTech absorption.
Data sourced from Capgemini reveals that by 2022 the non-cash-payments sector will be a US$ 400 billion market in Asia-Pacific itself and will become an almost 1 trillion dollar industry worldwide!
India has emerged as a global giant in FinTech. India has more than 200 FinTech startups. 87% of global FinTech-absorption happens in India. FinTech is closely related to InsurTech
Together, FinTech and InsurTech companies are opening up job opportunities for lawyers, accountants and law students. There are primarily 7 types of FinTech and InsurTech companies emerging in India as cutting-edge tech-startups of today!
These are:
- Digital Payment Platforms like Razorpay, Billdesk, etc.
- Payment wallets and payment protection insurance (PPI) like PayTM, GooglePay, PayZapp, etc.
- Lending platforms Lendingkart, Faircent, Rupeek, etc.
- InsurTech Platforms like Policybazaar, Acko, etc.
- InvesTech like Zerodha, Groww etc
- Factoring and discounting of? like KredX, Modify, etc.
- Forex and Crypto: Cashaa, UNICAs
AI-platforms like Mantra Labs and SaaS-platforms like Artivatic are cutting corners of FinTech and InsurTech in India today!
With a vast amount of money flowing online, India has awakened to a new dawn of FinTech and InsurTech regulations in this new century!
Regulatory authorities like Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) have brought laws and regulations in place to govern FinTech and InsurTech. Recently, the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has been established in GIFT City, Gandhinagar.
Regulatory framework
The regulatory framework of FinTech and InsurTech in India is made up of various laws and regulations such as:
- Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007
- Factoring Regulation Act 2011
- SEBI (Portfolio Managers) Regulations, 2020
- RBI NBFC – P2P Lending Platform Directions, 2017
- RBI Guidelines on Regulation of Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways, 2020
and quite a few more!
The RBI, for instance, issues directives and guidelines on various aspects of FinTech such as Prepaid Payment Instruments, Electronic Payment Transactions and the latest 2020 Guidelines on Regulation of Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways.
The SEBI and IRDA also issue regulations on FinTech and InsurTech from time to time.
SEBI, for instance, has its Credit Rating Agencies Regulations in place since 1999 and has also recently brought its Portfolio Managers Regulations of 2020.
IRDA, on the other hand, has an Insurance Web Aggregators Regulations in place since 2017 and has also subsequently brought the Regulatory Sandbox Regulations, 2019.
Opportunities for lawyers
- Litigation – Multiple litigation are ongoing in the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India involving FinTech and its various regulations. Specialised tribunals like the National Company Law Tribunal, Securities Appellate Tribunal etc have to deal with FinTech laws and regulations on a regular basis. FinTech companies, regulatory bodies like SEBI, RBI, IRDAI etc, Regulatory agencies like the Competition Commission of India, the Central Board of Direct Taxes, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs etc all need FinTech lawyers to handle these cases.
- Law-firms – Law firms worldwide have Telecom. Media and Tech (TMT) teams. Boutique tech law firms are growing globally. They all recruit FinTech lawyers.
- In-house counsels for FinTech and InsurTech companies – FinTech and InsurTech companies worldwide have requirement for in-house counsels to handle their everyday legal issues
- Freelance legal consultant – As a freelance legal consultant, you can handle a global clientele of FinTech and InsurTech companies including startups. Owing to the recent ongoing spurt of growth shown by Indian and Global FinTech and InsurTech startups,you can expect to be paid handsomely in return of your services.
There are opportunities galore for lawyers to work in FinTech and InsurTech in India and abroad. Companies and start-ups based on FinTech and InsurTech operations need lawyers and as do law firms. A simple job-search on Naukri, Monster, LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor and Google Jobs reveals thousands of openings for lawyers in FinTech and InsurTech.
Do you want to find out how you can be a preferred candidate in the eyes of recruiters from such FinTech-based companies, startups and law firms?
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