3 min readMumbaiSep 11, 2026 07:49 AM IST
His caution for the fintech industry comes at a time when many fintech players are reportedly relying heavily on data to push new products to customers. (file)Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Thursday urged the fintech ecosystem to treat data as a “fiduciary responsibility” to build trust instead of considering it just as a business asset. He also cautioned fintech companies against building businesses by exploiting regulatory gaps, saying that the strategy of “scaling first and seeking clarity or forgiveness later” was not right.
“I would urge all of you (fintechs) to treat data as a fiduciary responsibility, not as a business asset. Every fintech in this room holds something which
is much more valuable than capital, and that is the data, financial as well as non-financial, of very real people like you and me,” Malhotra said while addressing representatives from the fintech sector at the Global Fintech Fest in .