Exclusive interview with Mr. Bertram D’Souza, Chief Product & Innovation Officer, Protean eGov Technologies Ltd. where he shares perspective on the evolving regulatory environment in India, in view of the challenges and innovations in RegTech solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
How has the regulatory environment in India evolved in recent years, and how is it driving the adoption of RegTech solutions?
India’s regulatory landscape has undergone a significant transformation over the past decade, driven by the twin forces of digitalization and financial inclusion. Initiatives such as the India Stack, the Account Aggregator (AA) framework, and the push for paperless compliance have created a fertile ground for RegTech adoption. Regulators like RBI, SEBI, and IRDAI are actively leveraging technology to streamline compliance while ensuring economic priorities. The rise of real-time regulatory reporting, AI-powered fraud detection, and automated KYC/AML frameworks is a direct result of these changes.
Based on publicly available information, there are now hundreds of companies in India who have built products and services in the RegTech space. At Protean eGov Technologies, we also see this as an opportunity to extend our deep penetration into the entire BFSI sector to build scalable, SAAS-driven compliance solutions that integrate seamlessly into the digital economy, reducing the cost and complexity of regulatory adherence for businesses of all sizes.
What are the primary challenges you encounter when implementing RegTech solutions for SMEs transitioning to digital platforms?
SMEs often face three major challenges when adopting RegTech solutions:
- Limited awareness of compliance needs – Many SMEs struggle to keep up with evolving regulatory mandates.
- Cost sensitivity – Unlike large enterprises, SMEs may lack the financial resources to invest in advanced compliance tools.
- Integration hurdles – Many still rely on legacy or manual processes, making digital adoption a daunting task.
To address these, we have kept our design philosophy as modular and plug-and-play to integrate seamlessly with existing SME workflows. Our focus is on simplified onboarding, affordability, and regulatory guidance, ensuring that even the smallest businesses can achieve compliance without disrupting operations.
SMEs often face resource constraints. How do you tailor your solutions to meet the unique needs of these businesses?
At Protean, we adopt a “compliance-as-a-service” model that enables SMEs to pay-per-use rather than committing to large infrastructure investments. Key elements include:
- Low-cost, cloud-based compliance platforms that eliminate the need for heavy IT investment.
- Pre-configured templates making compliance seamless across product variants.
- AI-enablement to help SMEs meet regulatory deadlines without requiring a large operational manual workforce.
By lowering the barriers to entry, we ensure that compliance tech should not be a burden but an enabler for SME growth.
What role do you anticipate regulatory bodies will play in facilitating or hindering the adoption of RegTech solutions among smaller businesses?
Regulators are increasingly supportive of technology-driven compliance, recognizing that digital adoption improves transparency and accountability. Initiatives like Digital Public Goods (DPGs), Account Aggregator, and Central KYC (CKYC) highlight this shift.
However, certain regulatory mandates – such as stringent data localization laws, evolving privacy regulations, and fragmented sectoral compliance requirements- may require close support from regulatory bodies.
How does your company ensure that automated compliance tools uphold ethical decision-making, particularly when AI-based models might prioritize efficiency over fairness?
We prioritize the use of technology to ensure compliance decisions are transparent, auditable and unbiased. Key principles we follow:
- Human-in-the-loop governance – AI-based compliance models are not fully autonomous; human oversight is always embedded for critical decisions or action.
- Regulatory sandboxes – We collaborate with regulators to test and refine AI models before full-scale deployment.
- Bias detection and correction – Our systems undergo rigorous testing to detect and mitigate biases in automated decision-making.
This ensures that compliance solutions enhance efficiency without compromising fairness or accountability.
With increasing reliance on AI and machine learning for compliance, how do you strike the right balance between automation and human judgment, especially in critical decision-making scenarios?
Automation is essential for speed and scale, but regulatory decision-making often requires contextual understanding that AI alone cannot provide. Our approach:
- Risk-tiered automation – Routine tasks like KYC verification, fraud detection, and AML screening could be fully automated, while higher-risk cases are escalated for human review.
- AI-powered decision support – Instead of replacing human judgment, tools can assist compliance officers by flagging anomalies and providing data-driven insights.
- Continuous monitoring and feedback loops – AI models are constantly updated based on real-world inputs to refine decision accuracy.
This hybrid approach ensures compliance remains both efficient and ethical.
With the growing globalization of businesses, how does your company manage the complexities of creating solutions that cater to both global compliance standards and localized regulations in India?
We are looking to adopt a “glocal” approach—building compliance frameworks that align with international best practices while being adaptable to India’s unique regulatory nuances. While our initial products launched will have primarily an Indian market focus, we will continue to partner both with domestic and global regulators to stay updated on the needs of the global ecosystem and help our products expand into international markets.
Have you faced resistance or skepticism from regulators regarding your technology? If so, how did you overcome it and establish trust?
We believe that the regulatory innovation landscape in India is extremely progressive with regulators like RBI having arms like the RBI Fintech Department and RBI Innovation Hub to evaluate and support industry innovators. Besides working with regulators, partnering with Banks, NBFCs, Stock Brokers, Insurance companies etc. also helps to build strong sponsorship while identifying an area for regulatory innovation.
Have you encountered instances where RegTech solutions unintentionally created vulnerabilities, such as data privacy concerns or over-reliance on algorithms? How were these addressed?
As mentioned before, as part of the design of RegTech products & solutions, identifying the right balance of automation v/s human control is essential.
There are various ways to mitigate data privacy and security risks via infrastructural as well as application level controls along with a periodic audit mechanism.
With ESG regulations gaining traction, how is your RegTech solution positioned to help organizations comply with environmental, social, and governance requirements?
Protean has recently launched a platform called ‘Protean LIFE’ for corporates which is actively working on ESG-focused compliance tools that help businesses:
- Automate ESG reporting in line with industry norms
- Enable governance transparency with digital audit trails and risk monitoring dashboards.
By integrating ESG compliance into mainstream platforms, we ensure businesses meet their sustainability mandates while maximizing the full potential of the digital platform
Large enterprises often rely on legacy compliance systems. How does your RegTech offering persuade them to transition, especially when cost and disruption are significant concerns?
We take a phased adoption approach:
- Parallel run /Co-existence model – Our solutions can integrate with downstream APIs/databases, ensuring adequate confidence is built up before a complete switchover.
- Gradual transition roadmap – Enterprises can also migrate in stages, minimizing operational risks or disruption to the business.
- Cost efficiency through cloud deployment – Our SaaS-based compliance tools leveraging our Made-in-India cloud (public/private) help to reduce infrastructural overheads for new application deployments.
By reducing transition costs and enhancing compliance agility, we are looking to make digital transformation as compelling as possible for businesses of every scale.
