RBI greenlights 32 companies' applications to operate as online payment aggregators

The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday said that it has granted in-principle approval to 32 payment aggregators including Amazon Pay, Google India, Reliance Payment Solutions among others.

The central bank said it is considering 18 other applications including PhonePe and BhartiPay Services. The RBI has returned applications of four aggregators including Axis Bank led FreeCharge, PayTM Payments and PayU Payments.

"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 in a statement.

The regulator also said that while the scrutiny of applications was currently underway, to ensure greater transparency it was releasing current application status for all payment aggregators who had applied to the RBI for a license.

Other entities who have received an in-principle nod from the RBI to operate as payment aggregators include, Infibeam Avenues, Innoviti Payment Solutions, Lyra Network, NSDL Database Management, Open Financial Technologies, Pine Labs and Razorpay Software Private Limited.


Entities who applications have been returned can apply to the RBI within 120 days from the date of return. Till such time these entities cannot onboard new merchants.

The payment aggregator framework, introduced formally in March 2020, mandates that only firms approved by the RBI can acquire and offer payment services to merchants.

The firms authorised to operate as payment aggregators in India will come under the direct purview of the RBI while rendering payment services to merchants.

As per RBI rules, the eligibility criteria for a firm applying for PA authorisation is a minimum net worth of Rs 15 crore in the first year of application and going up to Rs 25 crore by the second year.

The firm also must fulfil ‘fit and proper’ criteria as well as be compliant with global payment security standards under PCI-DSS.