Mumbai, Jan. 29 -- Investing in digital public infrastructure such as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is reshaping credit markets by allowing banks and fintech firms to expand lending across the risk spectrum, said the Economic Survey 2026, released on Thursday. Fintechs especially play a distinctive role in reaching new-to-credit borrowers who were previously excluded from formal finance, the survey said, citing a working paper titled 'Breaking Barriers to Financial Access: Cross-Platform Digital Payments and Credit Markets (2025)', authored by Shahswat Alok.

"A growing body of research shows that a public, interoperable payment infrastructure can play a catalytic role in this transition by converting basic access into active finan...