Introduction

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  In recent times, multiple central banks & financial institutions across the globe including Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have established Innovation Hubs. To foster innovation in a sustainable manner, it is essential to nurture it through an institutional setup and accordingly, Reserve Bank has set up the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH), as announced in its Monetary Policy Statement on Development and Regulatory Policies dated August 06, 2020. The RBIH has been registered as a Section 8 company under Companies Act 2013, with an initial capital contribution of ₹100 crore to encourage and nurture financial innovation in a sustainable manner through an institutional set-up. The Hub has an independent Board with Shri Senapathy (Kris) Gopalakrishnan as the Chairman and other eminent persons from industry and academia as members to guide RBIH. RBIH aims to create an ecosystem that focuses on promoting access to financial services and products for the low-income population.
  
  The objective of the hub is to promote innovation across the financial sector by leveraging on technology and creating an environment which would facilitate and foster innovation. It will strive towards creating an eco-system that would focus on promoting access to financial services and products and would further financial inclusion. It will also develop the required internal infrastructure to promote FinTech research and facilitate engagement with innovators and start-ups. Further, RBIH will collaborate with financial sector institutions, technology, industry and academic institutions and will coordinate efforts for exchange of ideas and development of prototypes related to financial innovations.