With a view to bringing entities undertaking online payment aggregation business within the regulatory fold, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued circulars dated March 17, 2020 and March 31, 2021 on “Guidelines on Regulation of Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways” (Guidelines). In terms of the Guidelines, online non-bank Payment Aggregators (PAs) – existing as on March 17, 2020 (referred to as existing PAs) – were required to apply to RBI by September 30, 2021¹ for seeking authorisation under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSS Act). Further, another extension was allowed to all such PAs to submit their application by September 30, 2022 (circular dated July 28, 2022).

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 who have submitted application to RBI seeking authorisation to act as online PAs under the PSS Act along with the current status of their application as on February 15, 2023 is published, which will be updated on a fortnightly basis.

All stakeholders are advised to transact with only those existing PAs (a) who have been granted in-principle authorisation or (b) whose application is currently under process.

Stakeholders may transact with new PAs only after these entities have received ‘authorisation’² under Section 7 of the PSS Act from the Reserve Bank of India.

(Yogesh Dayal)     
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2022-2023/1726

¹ Earlier timeline was June 30, 2021; this was extended, vide RBI circular dated May 21, 2021 on “Relaxation in timeline for compliance with various payment system requirements”.

² The ‘List of Authorised Entities – Payment System Operators’ is available on the RBI website under the hyperlink, /en/web/rbi/-/publications/certificates-of-authorisation-issued-by-the-reserve-bank-of-india-under-the-payment-and-settlement-systems-act-2007-for-setting-up-and-operating-payment-system-in-india-12043.