Rbi: RBI gives PA licence to 32 companies: Names, biggest winners, losers; and all other key questions answered – Times of India

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted in-principle approval to 32 existing payment aggregators (PAs), allowing them to continue their operations. 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, has been issued.
What are these PAs and their role
PAs or Payment Aggregators 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.
Companies who have got RBI approval
Amazon India, Google India Digital Services, Reliance Payment Solutions and Zomato Payments are among the notable entities whose names are present in the list published by the central bank, of those existing payment aggregators, who have been granted in-principle approval to continue their operations.
Those whose application has been rejected
The RBI has returned applications of four aggregators including Axis Bank led FreeCharge, PayTM Payments and PayU Payments. These entities cannot onboard new merchants till they get approval.

Why the approval
The central bank had issued circulars dated March 17, 2020 and March 31, 2021 on guidelines on Regulation of Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways. As per this, 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. The payment aggregator framework, introduced formally in March 2020, mandates that only companies approved by the RBI can acquire and offer payment services to merchants.
What is the criteria to apply for PA licence
As per RBI rules, the eligibility criteria for a company to apply for PA licence 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 company must also fulfil ‘fit and proper’ criteria as well as be compliant with global payment security standards under PCI-DSS.

What happens to the companies whose application has been rejected or returned
The companies whose application has been rejected or returned are allowed to apply within 120 days from the date of return, and thus, can continue business subject to the condition that no new merchants should be onboard by them until advised otherwise. Applications of 18 existing payment aggregators, including that of Bhartipay Services Private Limited, are under process, the RBI said.
RBI’s important message to all stakeholders
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.