India’s financial services intermediary space needs a regulator to look after their interests, similar to Irdai for insurance firms and RBI for banks, respectively , said Sanjiv Bajaj, MD of Bajaj Capital.
He said that regulations work as an enabler and entities have clear guardrails to follow. He was speaking at the TIE India Internet Day 2025 event in Gurugram Friday.
“Insurance company regulator (Irdai) has to take care of the insurance company. RBI has to take care of the bank first. SEBI has to take care of the mutual fund. But who's there to take care of the distributor? So I think, India needs a financial services intermediary regulator or an independent body that is looking at the interest (of distributors). We can actually make one with 1.5 crore distributors in this country,” he said.
Bajaj said that this segment of the financial services industry is being neglected in India with no regulator looking after them. It was important to guard their interest as they are leading the task of financial inclusion in the country.
Such an initiative poses an opportunity to optimise the use of financial service products along with creating a significant number of self-employment opportunities.
“This is the time (to follow) the way the US and the UK has done. A financial services intermediary regulator needs to be here with a clear mandate of getting millions of distributors on board and removing restrictions on them,” he argued.
Moreover, Bajaj said that strict regulations in the financial services sector have made the investments safer and investors want to put money in the sector.
He said that the sector has a lot of growth potential and is not going to mature in the coming 4-5 years.
“Today when I talk about investor groups or angel groups, FinTech is looked at with a different eye, as a safer investment. This is because people have had very bad experiences but that is also great for people who are building (fintech) start-ups now. They made their controls and these controls are empowering them to raise money and that is going to be the fuel for your growth.”
