RBI Grants In-Principle Approval To 32 Existing Payment Aggregators

The Reserve Bank on Wednesday released a list of 54 entities, including Amazon (Pay) India, Google India Digital Services, NSDL Database Management, and Zomato Payments, which can continue to operate as Online Payment Aggregators (PAs).

In a statement, the RBI said while the exercise of scrutiny of applications of PAs is an ongoing process, for the purpose of disseminating information and ensuring greater transparency, the list of entities that have submitted applications to RBI seeking authorisation to act as online PAs with the current status of their application as of February 15, 2023, is published.

The list has three tables.

One of the tables is on 'Existing PAs who can operate as Online Payment Aggregators' and has 54 names. Thirty-two existing entities have been granted in-principle authorisation to operate as payment aggregators. Another table is on 'New PAs who have been granted in-principle authorisation and whose application is currently under process - Cannot operate'. It has 28 names.

The third is on 'List of PAs whose applications were returned/withdrawn - Cannot operate' and has 57 entities.

"All stakeholders are advised to transact with only those existing PAs who have been granted in-principle authorisation or whose application is currently under process," the RBI said.

It further said that stakeholders may transact with new PAs only after these entities have received 'authorisation' under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act from the Reserve Bank of India.

With a view to bringing entities undertaking online payment aggregation business within the regulatory fold, the Reserve Bank of India issued circulars on "Guidelines on Regulation of Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways".

PAs are entities that facilitate e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment instruments from customers. They facilitate merchants to connect with acquirers. In the process, they receive payments from customers, pool and transfer them on to the merchants after a time period.

As per the Guidelines, online non-bank PAs (existing as on March 17, 2020) were required to apply to RBI by September 30, 2021, for seeking authorisation under the PSS Act. Later, an extension was allowed for those PAs to submit their application by September 30, 2022.

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