PineLabs, RazorPay gets RBI approval for payment aggregator licence

Online payment firms Razorpay and Pine Labs are among the top listers which have got an affirmation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a payment aggregator licence. This will help them provide payment services to merchants, reports The Economic Times report, citing sources aware of the development.  

This is a result of the central bank holding several presentations with payment gateways and other fintech firms that had applied for a payment aggregator licence over the past few months, said the report. 

Nikhil Kumar, Co-founder, Setu which was acquired last month by Pine Labs, took up to Twitter to break the news that the firm’s unit, Agya Technologies, had received the in-principal licence. 

“Super excited and stoked to share our subsidiary - Agya Technologies has received an in-principle license for Account Aggregator,” Kumar tweeted. 

“The licence enables us to now go deeper and power AA for every single bank, NBFC, and fintech in India,” Kumar added. 

The RBI is expected to soon release the entire list of the companies who have made it to those who will operate as payment aggregators in the country shortly, according to the report. 

The payment aggregator framework was launched formally in March 2020 and mandated that only those firms can acquire and offer payment services to merchants that are approved by the RBI. 

The RBI introduced the payment aggregator framework in March 2020, whereby it mandated that only those firms can offer payment services to merchants that are authorised by the RBI. 

The framework also laid out that all the firms that receive the licence will come under the RBI’s direct purview. 

The RBI sought the companies that have received the in-principal approval to conduct an audit within the next six months to get the final approval, reported Moneycontrol. 

The other firms who have applied for the licence include, Tata Group, PhonePe, BharatPe, Cred, Amazon, Zomato etc.