The tally of companies receiving the payment aggregator licence is on an upward trend, with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approving 20 companies for such licences within the first four months of the ongoing calendar year 2024 (CY24).
On Tuesday, the banking regulator granted the payment aggregator licence to Groww Pay, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments platform of broking firm Groww, and payments firm Worldline.
“We work with merchants from various segments such as e-commerce, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), retail, utilities, education, travel, and hospitality for digital payments. The authorisation from RBI is a testimony of our commitment to the Indian market and affirms our focus on compliance and highlights the significance of a well-regulated payments landscape,” said Ramesh Narasimhan, chief executive officer (CEO) – India, Worldline.
This year, major players such as Amazon Pay, Digio, CCAvenue, Decentro, MSwipe, Tata Pay, Zoho, Zomato, among others, received a final nod from the regulator to operate as payment aggregators.
These companies join the ranks of other major market participants such as Razorpay and Cashfree Payments, who received their licence in December 2023 after a nearly one-year-long ban from onboarding new merchants.
In December last year, the regulator granted the payment aggregator licence to seven companies, according to the RBI website.
Meanwhile, last week, Prosus-backed fintech PayU received an in-principle approval from the RBI to operate as a payment aggregator.
In January last year, the banking regulator had asked the fintech company to reapply for a payment aggregator licence. The company’s complex corporate structure was one reason why the RBI asked it to reapply for the licence.
It usually takes six months to one year after the in-principle nod for a company to get the final approval from the regulator.
The RBI defines payment aggregators (PAs) as entities, which facilitate e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment instruments from customers for the completion of their payment obligations without the need for merchants to create a separate payment integration system of their own.
PAs enable merchants to connect with acquirers. They are able to receive payments from customers, pool them, and transfer them onto the merchants after a time period, according to the regulator.
These companies act as intermediaries between the merchant and the customer.
First Published: Apr 30 2024 | 5:58 PM IST