RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra demands fintechs treat data as fiduciary duty, not an asset

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra stated at the Global Fintech Fest that fintechs and financial institutions must treat customer data as a fiduciary duty instead of a business asset. He argued that data is far more valuable than capital and must be managed like assets held for a beneficiary, collected with clear purposes and used strictly within consent limits. Malhotra warned that firms which prioritize monetizing consumer data over responsibility erode trust, noting once that trust breaks, it does not return. He reiterated significant risks from artificial intelligence adoption, including bias, exclusion, cybersecurity threats, data privacy issues, and the erosion of human judgment. The RBI governor asserted that while proportionate regulation should not burden early-stage innovation, firms with large payment volumes and lending books must take systemic responsibility. He did not provide specific regulatory fines or numerical limits on data usage in his remarks.