FACE develops standards through a structured and consultative process, with the objective of producing practical guidance that members can adopt and apply, rather than abstract principles detached from implementation.
We identify priority areas based on regulatory developments and ecosystem inputs.
We bring in inputs from members, experts, and relevant stakeholders.
We assess issues against regulatory expectations, market practices, and relevant global approaches.
We refine the approach through consultation and deliberation to build shared understanding and broad consensus.
We take the draft through governance processes, including Board approval, before issuing it publicly.
We engage with members and the wider ecosystem to support adoption and implementation.
We revisit standards periodically to keep them aligned with regulatory and market developments.
The standards development process is guided by the Standards Policy and overseen by the Standards Committee, helping ensure independence, objectivity, expertise, and credibility.
Nanaiah K M
Ex MD & Country Leader - India & Middle East, Equifax
Ram Rastogi
Chairperson & Independent Director, FACE
Smita Jha
Partner, Khaitan & Co.
The scope of FACE’s standards work is broad and is designed to serve different purposes. Some establish baseline conduct expectations. Some provide principle-based guidance for specific operational areas. Others function as implementation tools to improve readiness, internal consistency, and day-to-day compliance.
Taken together, standards and guidelines issued by FACE establish a practical self-regulatory architecture that helps members operationalise expectations more consistently and align internal practices with evolving regulatory and market requirements.
These Codes set out baseline expectations for responsible conduct, governance, and industry behaviour.
Principle-based frameworks that support members in adopting sound and consistent practices
Practical tools intended to support implementation, improve internal readiness, and bring greater consistency to operational and compliance processes.
FACE’s aim is to ensure that standards are not only issued, but understood, discussed, and adopted in a meaningful way across the ecosystem.
This is particularly important in the FinTech sector where entities vary widely by size, maturity, business model, regulatory status, and internal capacity
FACE complements standards-setting with active compliance promotion through regular member engagement, meetings, webinars, thematic discussions, knowledge-sharing sessions, and guidance dissemination etc. This helps reduce fragmented interpretation of rules and strengthens a common understanding of good practices.
By supporting members through practical guidance and structured dialogue, FACE enables members to adapt more effectively to change and helps build a stronger culture of compliance, transparency, and customer-centricity across the ecosystem, reinforcing the role of self-regulation as a practical and credible institution-building mechanism.
