Mumbai to host FinTech fest on on June 2-3

Maharashtra government has invited around 300-400 firms to participate in the festival

After announcing a number of incentives through its FinTech (financial technology) policy in February this year, the Maharashtra government is now eyeing to develop Mumbai as the FinTech capital of the country.

The state government plans to develop Mumbai as the financial technology capital of the country (REUTERS)

To give impetus to the idea, it has decided to organise a two-day Mumbai FinTech Festival 2018, on June 2 and 3 at a South Mumbai hotel. The government has invited around 300-400 firms to participate in the festival.

The event will be a precursor to the Mumbai FinTech hub, which is being set up with an aim to foster the next generation innovation across the financial services and ecosystem to nurture globally competent FinTech firms, said officials.

Singapore, which is the world’s biggest FinTech centre at present, also organises similar festivals.

“To make Mumbai the FinTech hub of the country, the state government is organising this event, which will be inaugurated by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis,” SVR Srinivas, principal secretary of the state information technology department said.

“We believe that the future of financial services will be in FinTech. It is the technology part that is going to dominate the market in the near future,” he said.

The two-day festival will provide a unique opportunity to start-ups, students and developers to showcase their innovative ideas and solutions, deliberate on the industry, on the evolution of FinTech and networking with financial services institutions such as banks and insurance firms.

The festival will have innovation challenge for start-ups, hackathon for students for which around 100 participants have already registered.