Indian government is expected to issue rules to regulate financial tech space

The government is expected to come out with regulations for fintech (financial technology) space as the industry is likely to witness increased payments and lending activities, a study said today. With payments and lending remaining priority areas, fintech interest grew in India during January-March quarter of 2017, global consulting firm KPMG said in its report. "Payments and lending drove investment during the quarter, although interest in artificial intelligence (AI) also increased," said the KPMG Pulse of Fintech Report.Over the next quarter, insurtech may come into its own in India, according to the report. "And the (Indian) government is expected to release regulations for fintech, particularly related to peer-to-peer lending, which could lead to additional activity," it added. Citing Paytm attracting Asia's largest funding round of $200 million in March quarter, it said AI and blockchain may be big bets for investors apart from payments, open data and data analytics.Over the quarter, investment into Asia's fintech space hit $492 million across 33 deals, as per the report. "Interest in regtech (regulatory technology) and insurtech (insurance technology) is also projected to increase over the remainder of 2017," it said. KPMG India Fintech Head Neha Punater said: "While payments and lending continue to drive most fintech investment in India, other areas are quickly gaining momentum".Talking about global fintech space, it said investment got off to a quiet start in 2017. With the US continuing to drive the sector, deal values globally remained stable quarter-on-quarter at $3.2 billion in March quarter.