Best way to learn fintech is to reverse engineer it.
Try out fintech apps read about financial services companies their business, and try to understand how they are doing what they are doing. Some questions to think about, these are just off the cuff.
1. Do they need a license to do this, or is this a partnership with a regulated entity?
2. Why do they need my OTP here?
3. Why do they need to KYC? Why is my Aadhar OTP not enough KYC? Basically try to think in terms of friction point the company will not want to do 1 bit more than it has to under law, so if you see any friction, in terms of OTP/KYC/Account Verification/Disclaimer/Disclosure, it is probably required by regulation and you should try to understand where does it originate from.
4. Some random questions why does this crypto exchange not support crypto withdrawals?
5. Why are there different type of banks what is the difference between cooperative & SFBs?
6. What is the difference between Payment Gateway and Payment Aggregator?
7. How does UPI work? Who is NPCI? What is a PSP/TPAP? What is PPI on UPI?
8. How does Mutual Fund Investments work? What is a Mutual Fund Distributor? What is an Investment Adviser/ Portfolio Manager? You can repeat this for each sectoral regulator (IRDAI, PFRDA, RBI (big daddy), SEBI, IBBI) pick up all the types of licenses they issue and try to understand the what, why and how.
The second best way is to read up on all major fintech issues/debates of the last decade and read and understand the regulation around that topic, at that day and as it stands today. For example FLDG , Digital Lending Guidelines, Payment Gateways-Chinese Loan Scams, Crypto-Chinese Loan Scams, Credit on PPI (Slice Shutdown), RBI hesitance in granting Universal Banking License/PA License (Congrats to Razorpay/Cashfree), RBI rescue schemes (BharatPe, Slice etc. For these topics there are some really good newsletters you can follow, if you read up their archives, and actually pick up the regulations to read and understand that is more than enough. My personal favourites are Fintales by Ikigai & MoneyRules by Setu, however they don't really go back long enough. I think if you search mint archives that is also a good source, I have been following news for some years now so have had the benefit of reading newspapers. Today, there are a lot of good newsletters that cover everything.
The third is just open Mondaq periodically and catch up on all recent updates or minor news.
This idea that bare reading of rules, regulations to learn fintech from scratch is a futile exercise in my opinion, it is boring, and you are unlikely to understand any thing you read. Although once you cover the basics, you do need to exhaustively read all of these regulations/acts etc. which many have listed here, but I would suggest starting from live examples and reverse engineer to reach the applicable law.
Thank you
Prevention Money Laundering Act
Directions for Opening and Operation of Accounts and Settlement of Payments for Electronic Payment Transactions Involving Intermediaries, 2009
Guidelines on Regulation of Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways
Master Direction on Issuance and Operation of Prepaid Payment Instruments
Guidelines for Licensing of Payments Banks
Digital Lending Guidelines
Master Directions – Non-Banking Financial Company – Peer to Peer Lending Platform
Master Direction – Non-Banking Financial Company – Scale Based Regulation) Directions
Master Direction - Know Your Customer (KYC) Direction, 2016
Master Directions on Access Criteria for Payment Systems
Framework for Outsourcing of Payment and Settlement-related Activities by Payment System Operators
2. NBFC (SBR) Master Direction, 2023
3. Outsourcing of Financial Services Guidelines (for both banks and NBFCs; for NBFCs, it is now covered within the SBR MD)
4. Outsourcing of IT functions Guidelines.
5. Digital Lending Guidelines, 2022
6. Guidelines on Default Loss Guarantee, 2023
7. DPDP Act, 2023 - with a background of SPDI Rules 2008
8. Aadhaar Act
9. Aadhaar (Authentication and Offline Verification) Regs 2022
10. PMLA and PML Rules, 2005
11. PA-PG Guidelines
12. Debit and Credit Card Directions
13. Co-Lending Circular, Co-origination circular
14. PA-CB circular
15. PPI Master Directions
16. FEMA Circulars on Authorised Dealers
17. NPCI circulars and procedural guidelines
18. Consumer Protection Act and regulations / guidelines thereof
This is a broad overview of applicable laws in fintech.
Try out fintech apps read about financial services companies their business, and try to understand how they are doing what they are doing. Some questions to think about, these are just off the cuff.
1. Do they need a license to do this, or is this a partnership with a regulated entity?
2. Why do they need my OTP here?
3. Why do they need to KYC? Why is my Aadhar OTP not enough KYC? Basically try to think in terms of friction point the company will not want to do 1 bit more than it has to under law, so if you see any friction, in terms of OTP/KYC/Account Verification/Disclaimer/Disclosure, it is probably required by regulation and you should try to understand where does it originate from.
4. Some random questions why does this crypto exchange not support crypto withdrawals?
5. Why are there different type of banks what is the difference between cooperative & SFBs?
6. What is the difference between Payment Gateway and Payment Aggregator?
7. How does UPI work? Who is NPCI? What is a PSP/TPAP? What is PPI on UPI?
8. How does Mutual Fund Investments work? What is a Mutual Fund Distributor? What is an Investment Adviser/ Portfolio Manager? You can repeat this for each sectoral regulator (IRDAI, PFRDA, RBI (big daddy), SEBI, IBBI) pick up all the types of licenses they issue and try to understand the what, why and how.
The second best way is to read up on all major fintech issues/debates of the last decade and read and understand the regulation around that topic, at that day and as it stands today. For example FLDG , Digital Lending Guidelines, Payment Gateways-Chinese Loan Scams, Crypto-Chinese Loan Scams, Credit on PPI (Slice Shutdown), RBI hesitance in granting Universal Banking License/PA License (Congrats to Razorpay/Cashfree), RBI rescue schemes (BharatPe, Slice etc. For these topics there are some really good newsletters you can follow, if you read up their archives, and actually pick up the regulations to read and understand that is more than enough. My personal favourites are Fintales by Ikigai & MoneyRules by Setu, however they don't really go back long enough. I think if you search mint archives that is also a good source, I have been following news for some years now so have had the benefit of reading newspapers. Today, there are a lot of good newsletters that cover everything.
The third is just open Mondaq periodically and catch up on all recent updates or minor news.
This idea that bare reading of rules, regulations to learn fintech from scratch is a futile exercise in my opinion, it is boring, and you are unlikely to understand any thing you read. Although once you cover the basics, you do need to exhaustively read all of these regulations/acts etc. which many have listed here, but I would suggest starting from live examples and reverse engineer to reach the applicable law.