Rbi: RBI has ‘good news’ for Google Pay, Amazon Pay and other payment aggregators – Times of India

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted in-principle approval to 32 existing payment aggregators, including Amazon Pay and Google Pay, allowing them to continue their operations in the country.
Amazon (Pay) India Pvt Ltd, Google India Digital Services Pvt Ltd, Reliance Payment Solutions Ltd and Zomato Payments Pvt Ltd are among the notable entities whose names are present in the list published by the RBI.
These are among the existing payment aggregators who have been granted in-principle approval to continue their operations. Paytm Payments Services and PayU Payments Private Limited are the entities whose application to continue as payment aggregators has been returned by the RBI.
“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. Stakeholders may transact with new PAs only after these entities have received ‘authorisation’ under Section 7 of the PSS Act from the RBI,” the apex bank said.

RBI says no to new merchants
As per news agency IANS, these payment aggregators are allowed to apply within 120 days from the date of return. They can continue business subject to the condition that no new merchants should be onboard by them until advised otherwise.
Furthermore, applications of 18 existing payment aggregators, including that of Bhartipay Services Private Limited, are under process, the RBI said.
The central bank had earlier issued circulars dated March 17, 2020 and March 31, 2021 on guidelines on Regulation of Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways.

RBI notification
On March 17 2020, the RBI had come out with the payment aggregator framework, according to which, all payment gateways needed to obtain a licence to acquire merchants and offer them payments services.
The last date of submitting the application for seeking authorisation under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSS Act) was September 30, 2021. Online non-bank payment aggregators, existing as on March 17, 2020 were required to apply to RBI.
They were given another extension to submit their applications by September 30, 2022.
Over 185 fintechs, including Cred, Razorpay, Paytm and PhonePe, had submitted proposals for the licence.
The eligibility criteria for payment aggregators include minimum net worth criterion of Rs 15 crore by March 31, 2021 and Rs 25 crore by the end of the ongoing fiscal year (FY23), according to the RBI rules.