in order to be able to cope with high private debt ratios and to deleverage reasonably quickly, the strength of the insolvency framework is important. also, recent analysis from the european commission found evidence that in the presence of a high stock of private debt, the quality of insolvency frameworks is important for financial stability and for spurring entrepreneurship and thereby mitigating the impact of deleveraging on growth. in particular, it was found that a good insolvency framework is associated with speedier adjustment of non - performing loan ratios. 4 see oecd, “ economic policy reforms 2015 : going for growth ”, 2015. aiyar, s., bergthaler, w., garrido, j. m., ilyina, a., jobst, a., kang, k., kovtun, d., liu, y., monaghan, d. and moretti, m., “ a strategy for resolving europe ’ s problem loans ”, imf staff discussion note, september 2015. carcea, m. c., ciriaci. d, cuerpo, c., lorenzani, d. and pontuch. p., “ the economic impact of rescue and recovery frameworks in the eu ”, european economy discussion paper no 004, september 2015. bis central bankers ’ speeches to highlight the differences in insolvency frameworks across euro area member countries, let me mention a few country figures : in slovakia it takes on average 4 years to resolve an insolvency case, while in portugal it takes 2 years and in ireland it takes less than 5 months. when looking at international practices, one can find three types of procedures through which firms can deal with debt restructuring : 1. out - of - court procedures ; 2. hybrid preventive restructuring procedures ; and 3. formal insolvency or restructuring procedures. in the euro area countries formal insolvency procedures are very common, while out - of - court procedures have been much less used so far. however, voluntary out - of - court restructuring can provide a speedy, cost - effective and market - friendly alternative to court insolvency proceedings. this tool is particularly useful in cases where there is a lack of confidence in the institutional capacity to support the operation of the insolvency system. in the past few years insolvency laws have been amended, in particular

##rs. the fintech ecosystem in india has indeed evolved and is poised for a giant leap. 10. let me now touch upon some of the other initiatives taken by the rbi in this area. the regulatory sandbox framework was released in august 2019 with a view to foster innovation. with this, the reserve bank entered the select group countries that have their very own regulatory sandbox ecosystem. after four theme - based cohorts on retail payments, cross - border payments, msme lending and prevention of financial frauds, a theme neutral fifth cohort was announced earlier this month. it reflects our keen desire to increase the footprint of innovation in the fintech space. the success stories emanating from our regulatory sandbox initiative include, among others, the ‘ framework for facilitating small value digital payments in offline mode ’ and the recently launched upi123pay which was aimed at enhancing digital financial inclusion by enabling over 40 crore feature phone users to access the benefits of upi in a safe and secure manner. 11. the reserve bank, for the first time, organised a global hackathon titled harbinger 2021 – with a view to make retail payments more innovative. this witnessed enthusiastic response. we received 363 proposals including 22 from abroad from countries like the usa and the uk. this exercise gave us a glimpse of the creative talent pool that india possesses and reinforced our belief that india is well positioned to provide leadership in the fintech space. i understand that the winners of harbinger 2021 are also participating in this global fintech festival to further showcase their creativity and talent. 12. more recently, the rbi has set up the reserve bank innovation hub ( rbih ) as a subsidiary in bengaluru. the hub has an eminent board of directors drawn from the private sector and domain experts. the rbih is currently undertaking several important projects. i am confident that going forward, the rbih will benchmark itself as a centre of excellence. 13. we have also created a new fintech department in the rbi from january 2022 to give focused attention to this evolving and dynamic sector. the objective of this department is not only to promote innovation, but also identify the associated challenges and opportunities and address them in a timely manner. all matters relating to facilitation of constructive innovations and incubations in the fintech space, with wider implications for the financial sector and markets, are being dealt with by this department, in addition to inter - regulatory issues and international cooperation. 14