The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has returned the applications of prominent online non-bank Payment Aggregators (PAs) such as Freecharge Payment Technologies, PayTM Payments Services, and PayU Payments for authorisation under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSS Act). 

The central bank also returned the application of Tapits Technologies. However, these four PAs have been allowed to apply afresh within 120 days from the date of return.

Thus, the aforementioned PAs, whose applications were returned in the last two months or so, can continue business subject to the condition that no new merchants should be on-boarded until advised otherwise, according to Reserve Bank of India’s update on the status of Applications of Online PAs received under the PSS Act.

PAs are entities that facilitate e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment instruments from the customers for completion of their payment obligations without the need for merchants to create a separate payment integration system of their own.

PAs 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.

Status of existing PAs

Amazon (Pay) India, Computer Age Management Services, Google India Digital Services, Infibeam Avenues, NSDL Database Management, NTT DATA Payment Services, Pine Labs, Razorpay Software, Reliance Payment Solutions and Zomato Payments are among the 32 existing PAs which have been granted ‘In-Principle Authorisation,’ allowing them to operate as online PAs.

The applications of 18 other existing PAs including Instamojo Technologies, PhonePe, and Unimoni Enterprise Solutions are under process.

Status of new PAs

The RBI has granted ‘In-Principle Authorisation’ to 19 new PAs, including Hitachi Payment Services, Juspay Technologies, Mswipe Technologies, Tata Payments and Zoho Payment Technologies. But they cannot operate yet.

The applications of 9 new PAs, including Aurionpro Payment Solutions, SBI Payment Services, and Sodexo SVC India are under process.

Third list

RBI said the applications of 17 existing PAs were returned. These PAs have been advised to stop online payment aggregation activity and close nodal / escrow account(s) within a period of 180 days from the date of return of application.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, Khatabook Technologies, and Ola Financial Services are among the 40 new PAs whose application has been returned, as per the third list.

RBI, in a statement, advised all stakeholders 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 central bank, per the statement.

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