RBI sets up innovation hub for financial sector under Kris Gopalakrishnan
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set up an Innovation Hub for the financial sector and appointed Senapathy (Kris) Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and former co-chairman of Infosys, as the chairperson of the governing council for the entity.
The central bank had said in its August monetary policy that it was going to set up a Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) to promote innovation across the financial sector by leveraging on technology and creating an environment which would facilitate and foster innovation.
The aim of the RBIH is to create an eco-system that would “focus on promoting access to financial services and products. This will also promote financial inclusion.”
RBIH will collaborate with financial sector institutions, technology industry and academic institutions and coordinate efforts for exchange of ideas and development of prototypes related to financial innovations, the RBI said, adding, it would develop internal infrastructure to promote fintech research and facilitate engagement with innovators and start-ups.
The RBIH would be guided and managed by the governing council led by Gopalakrishnan. The other members of the council includes Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Institute Professor, IIT, Madras, H Krishnamurthy, Principal Research Scientist, IISc, Bengaluru, Gopal Srinivasan, CMD, TVS Capital Funds, A P Hota, Former CEO, National Payments Corporation of India, Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, Former CMD, Syndicate Bank and ex-officio members from RBI T Rabi Sankar, Executive Director, Deepak Kumar, CGM, Department of Information Technology, K Nikhila, Director, Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology, Hyderabad.
The CEO is yet to be appointed.
