GFF 2026: PM Modi Wants Insurance to Be as Easy as UPI
GFF 2026 saw PM Modi call for insurance to be as simple and accessible as UPI, highlighting the need for greater digital adoption.
GFF 2026 saw PM Modi urge the insurance sector to make insurance as easy and seamless as UPI.
GFF 2026 in Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the inauguration of the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2026 in Mumbai on Tuesday, said India’s fintech market remains concentrated in payments and called on the industry to expand the share of insurance, credit, savings, investment and pension products.
Speaking alongside Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra and GFF Chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan, Modi said that while UPI has anchored India’s fintech growth over the past decade, the sector’s next phase must move beyond payments. “In the fintech market, along with payments, the share of credit transactions must increase, the share of insurance must increase, the share of savings, investments, and pensions must increase,” PM said.
The Prime Minister said fintech-driven data on small businesses’ income and expense patterns could be used to design tailored financial products, including credit, for enterprises too small for traditional banking models to serve efficiently. He cited the example of a small shop owner whose digital payment history reveals a stable income pattern, arguing that such data could similarly inform curated insurance and credit offerings for underserved segments.
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GFF 2026: PM says insurance access should be as simple as a QR code payment
Modi said financial services beyond payments — including insurance — should be made as accessible as scanning a QR code. “Fintech can make access easier to insurance products and other financial services. All these can be made just as simple, easy, and accessible as making a payment today with a QR code,” he said.
He extended the same argument to gig and informal-sector workers, saying delivery partners and others in similar work need access to savings and pension products in addition to insurance, and that fintech companies are positioned to address these needs.
The Prime Minister also pointed to the PM SVANidhi scheme, under which street vendors have been brought into the formal banking and credit system through UPI-enabled transactions, as a template for extending formal financial services — including insurance — to segments historically outside traditional financial models.
He said the government has extended PM SVANidhi until 2030, citing studies showing beneficiaries’ average annual income rose by more than 20 percent, alongside improvements in housing, nutrition, healthcare access and children’s education.
GFF 2026: Four-point agenda includes a consumer protection index for fintech firms
Modi outlined four suggestions for the fintech industry going forward: strengthening cybersecurity standards, developing industry-led ethical data protection standards, building a stronger regulator-industry innovation ecosystem, and creating a “fintech consumer protection index” that would give every company a transparent rating.
PM’s remarks came against the backdrop of India’s UPI platform completing ten years since its launch on August 25, and reported to have processed more than 2,400 crore transactions in August alone. He also referenced a recent sovereign ratings upgrade for India by a Japanese credit rating agency to the “A” category, describing it as the country’s first such upgrade in three decades, and noted India’s GDP growth of 7.8 percent in a recent quarter.
