FINTECH LAW & POLICY

OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE

The FinTech sector is flourishing worldwide. Over the past five years, Indian FinTech
companies have raised approximately US$10Bn from investors around the globe. It is intensely
poised to achieve a FinTech sector valuation of US $150-160Bn by 2025. India has a range of
active Fintech businesses operating across areas such as lending, payments, peer-to-merchant
and peer-to-peer, investments and trading, personal finance and wealth, credit ratings, insurance,
regulation etc., From digital payments including E-wallets, Gift cards, Vouchers to blockchain,
cryptocurrency and NFTs the course will cover all areas relating to FinTech law and regulations.

CREDIT HOURS

As per the credit hours allotted to the subject there will be 4 theory classes per week. Teaching
Methodology will include Lecture-cum-case discussion, Assignment/Project and
Presentation/Debate.

THE EVALUATION SYSTEM

Mid Term 20 Marks

Case Presentation 10 Marks
Case law analysis 10 Marks
Research paper 10 Marks
End Term 50 Marks
Total 100 Marks

COURSE CURRICULUM

MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION

 Introduction to FinTech
 FinTech market in India and at Global level
  Ecosystems of FinTech: Digital payments, Digital banking, Self Regulatory
Organizations (SROs)Payment System Operator (PSOs) including PPIs (Prepaid Payment
Instruments) or Payment System Provider (PSP), aggregators, e-wallet and gift
instrument issuers, card issuers, money transfer networks, ATM networks, National
Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Unified Payment Interface (UPI), RuPay (card
payment network) etc., fund transfers through mobile platform, payment gateways
 FinTech Trends: Robo-advising, Peer-to-peer Lending, Reg-tech, Insur-tech, Payment-
tech, Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, NFTs
 Innovation and Transformation in FinTech: Artificial Intelligence, IoT etc.,

MODULE 2: FINTECH & RBI, NPCI

 The Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 & FinTech related regulations
 FinTech & National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)
 RBI circulars relating to UPI payments.
 KYC Directions, 2016 including 2023 amendment.
 RBI Circulars relating to Crredit and Debit card issuance and conduct, transactions, e-
mandate, restrictions on storage of card data and tokenization – Card-on-File (CoF)
 Guidelines on Regulation of Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways (PA
Guidelines), 2020
 Framework for Recognition of a Self-Regulatory Organisation for Payment System
Operators, 2020
 Master Directions on Prepaid Payment Instruments (MD-PPIs), 2021 (PPI Regulations)
 Report of the Working Group on Digital Lending including Lending through Online
Platforms and Mobile applications (November 18, 2021) & Guidelines on Digital
Lending, 2022
 Framework for Scale Based Regulation for Non-Banking Financial Companies, 202
 RBI guidelines for Online Payment Gateway Service Providers to regulate payments
processing of cross-border sales of goods and services (OPGSP Guidelines), 2015 and
draft regulations, 2022.
  Regulatory sand box of RBI – retail payments, cross-border payments, MSME lending
and prevention, mitigation of financial frauds, 2020
 RBI Payments Vision 2025 – issued in 2022 with regard to cross-border payments –
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) International Payments Limited (NIPL),
Various circulars on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments, NPCI- circular 2023
 Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in 2022
 RBI Master Direction on Outsourcing of Information Technology Services (Outsourcing
Directions), 2023
 Fair Lending Practice – Penal charges in Loan Accounts – Draft Circular, 2023
 Regulatory sandbox for cross border payments, MSME lending and Prevention of
Mitigation of Financial Frauds
 RBI regulations relating to Self Regulatory Organizations (SROs)

MODULE 3: FINTECH & INSURANCE REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA

(IRDAI)
 The Insurance Act, 1938
 Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (IRDA)
o Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act, 2005
o Credit Information Companies Regulation, 2006
o Circulars of RBI
 Guidelines on Insurance Repositories and Electronic issuance of Insurance Policies,
2015.
 Guidelines on lnsurance e-commerce, 2017.
 Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Issuance of e-Insurance
Policies) Regulations, 2016.
 IRDAI (Regulatory Sandbox) Regulations, 2019

MODULE 4: FINTECH & SEBI

 Fintech & Companies Act, 2013

 SEBI – Pre-Placement Memorandums (PPMs) and Alternative Investment Fund Circular
(AIF) 2023
  BASL Advertisement Code for IAs 2023
 Advertisement code for Investment Advisers (IA) and Research Analysts (RA), 2023
(Advertisement Code)
 Circular on Mutual Funds, 2021.

MODULE 5: FINTECH & IFSCA

 International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019.

 Framework for FinTech Entity in the International Financial Services Centres
(IFSCs), 2022.
 IFSCA Fintech Regulatory Sandbox (FRS)
 Fiintech Cooperation Agreement between Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
and the IFSCA
 Inter-operatable Regulatory Sandbox

MODULE 5: FINTECH & GOVT OF INDIA SCHEMES AND INITIATIVES

 Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprise (which offers loans of up to INR
10 million without any collateral to micro and small enterprises).
 Start-up India Initiative (which offers funding and incentives to eligible start-ups).
 PRISM’s Technopreneur Promotion Program (which provides financial aid to individual
innovators).
 Tamil Nadu FinTech Policy 2021, offering collaboration and incentives for select fintech
startups.
 Maharashtra FinTech Policy
MODULE 6: FINTECH & CRYPTOCURRENCY
 Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021
  RBI’s release of a concept note on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in October
2022
 Crypto currency ban case – Internet and Mobile Association of India v. RBI & some
other case-laws

MODULE 7: FINTECH & IPR

  FinTech & Patents – Novelty grace period, confidentiality
 USPTO classification of FinTech Patents
 FinTech & Software Patenting, Algorithms, Metaverse, Artificial Intelligence
 FinTech, Source Code & Trade Secrets
 Visual Design & Graphical User Interface (GUI) & Industrial Designs
 Role of IPR in Mergers & Acquisitions of FinTech companies
 IP Disputes relating to FinTech
 Case-law – Phonepe Pvt Ltd., v. EZY Services and Ors & other case-laws
 FinTech & Copyright Law – Impact on characterization of software payments

MODULE 8: FINTECH & TAX

 FinTech & Corporate Income Tax – Section 2(17) of ITA

 Finance Act, 2020 - Equalization Levy (EL) & Expanded EL – Sections 163, 165A,
 FinTech & Copyright Law – Impact on taxation of software payments – Engineering
Analysis Center of Excellence Private Limited v. Commissioner of Income Tax 2021
SCC Online SC 159

MODULE 9: FINTECH & OTHER LEGISLATIVE FIELDS

 FinTech & Consumer Protection law

 FinTech & the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002
 FinTech & IT Act, 2000 – Data Protection, Data Security & Data Privacy
 FinTech & Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA)
o PFRDA Circular No: PFRDA/2023/11/Fintech/02 dated 16th March 2023
 FinTech & Non-banking Finance Companies
 FinTech & Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999
 FinTech & Smart Contracts

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