A big crowd at RBI doors for payment aggregator licence

A slew of firms harbouring fintech ambitions have made a beeline to the Reserve Bank of India to change into licensed Fee Aggregators (PAs) below the central financial institution’s upcoming regulatory regime for non-bank fee suppliers.

Corporations which have utilized for authorisation or are within the superior phases of submitting their proposals to the RBI embody the Tata group, Amazon,

, Dutch funds startup Adyen, Paytm, BharatPe, PhonePe, Razorpay, Cred, Zomato, PayU, Worldline, Pine Labs and CAMSPAY, sources concerned within the diligence course of advised ET. At the very least 30 corporations are learnt to have submitted their proposals, sources mentioned, indicating that the variety of candidates might enhance earlier than the September 30 deadline for current and new non-bank corporations to use.

The corporations that will probably be authorised to function as PAs in India will probably be below the direct purview of RBI in rendering fee companies to retailers, in a step that many business insiders mentioned would lead in direction of a extra standardised and controlled funds ecosystem. “For lengthy, the operations of PAs in India have been seen as a blind spot for laws,” mentioned a funds business insider. “RBI’s PA/PG guidelines on this regard have been launched to make sure a normal for these corporations providing fee service to retailers.”

“There’s a feeling that any web agency with a mass shopper base will probably be making use of for a PA licence because the eligibility barrier is low and lacking out on approval can restrict any future enlargement in providing fintech companies,” the supply mentioned.

Underneath the brand new guidelines, any agency buying retailers would compulsorily want RBI approval to function as a licensed PA, the supply added. The central financial institution’s new Fee Aggregator/Fee Gateway pointers –
introduced formally in March 2020 – mandate that solely corporations accredited by RBI can purchase and supply fee companies to retailers. Regulated banks don’t want any separate approvals.

As per RBI guidelines, the eligibility standards for a agency making use of for PA authorisation is a minimal web price of Rs 15 crore within the first 12 months of utility and going as much as Rs 25 crore by the second 12 months. The agency additionally should fulfil ‘match and correct’ standards in addition to be compliant with world fee safety requirements below PCI DSS, an info safety protocol maintained by fee corporations the world over. “PhonePe has been working as a Payment Aggregator, providing fee companies to retailers on our community. According to the RBI pointers, we’d be making use of for the PA licence to proceed providing fee companies to our service provider companions,” a PhonePe spokesperson mentioned.

Ramesh Narasimhan, Head-Digital Commerce, Worldline India, mentioned: “Ingenico ePayments India, a Worldline model, is within the strategy of instantly making use of for the Fee Aggregator licence properly earlier than the deadline as we stay dedicated to deepening the attain of on-line fee options in India.”

Spokespersons for Adyen, Razorpay and Cred didn’t supply feedback. Different corporations cited earlier within the story didn’t reply to ET’s e mail. RBI additionally didn’t remark.

Sources advised ET that many main ecommerce marketplaces, world fee corporations, current PGs and home shopper web corporations are additionally in line to use for authorisations.

ET couldn’t independently affirm these names.