Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today data security is a top priority even as the country plans to continue working on facilitating financial services over the next 25 years. The FM says there is a need to prepare for investments in fintech-related areas and to understand how blockchain technology can be used to drive growth.

“We must ensure personal data security, national security and cybersecurity,” said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitahraman during a session on the future of finance at the FICCI Leads India 2022 event in New Delhi.

When asked about the future of finance, the FM says it may be difficult to commit to any particular aspect of finance going forward, but warns against planning with a sense of urgency for something that is highly volatile and of which it is influenced by external factors.

“In two years, the digitization of payment gateways is one of the exemplary cases that show that scaling has taken place in the financial world. In any case, a large layer of investment is growing on the technical side of finance. Blockchain usage is expected to grow by 46% within the next 4 years,” says Sitharaman.

“(There is) scope to understand how this will drive growth. We must be willing to invest in these areas. Investors are looking for investments in non-traditional areas,” says Sitharaman, adding that she sees a big role in artificial intelligence in fraud prevention.

According to FM, seven countries have expressed interest in India’s United Payments Interface (UPI), claiming that the future of finance in India will be driven by digitization. She says data security is a top priority for the country.

“Seven countries have expressed interest in our UPI system. RuPay is acceptable in the United Arab Emirates. Singapore has also expressed an interest, while a MoU has been signed with France,” she adds.