Payment aggregators (PAs) whose applications were turned down now have a second chance to submit an application for a licence through the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
According to the central bank, “it has been agreed to offer another opportunity to all such PAs (existent as of March 17, 2020) to apply to the RBI in order to ensure seamless operation of the payments ecosystem.”
As per the RBI directive, PAs with a net worth of INR 15 Cr as of March 31, 2022, can apply by September 30, 2022.
Payment Aggregators who lost chance earlier for license can reapply now RBI says
The PAs whose applications had previously been rejected due to non-compliance with the eligibility requirements will also be permitted to operate up until the time when RBI contacts them regarding their application.
“Even if they have the choice to reapply after achieving the required conditions, stopping operations could cause problems for the payment systems. It’s also possible that some PAs didn’t apply to RBI since they didn’t meet the requirements,”
However, the timeline of March 31, 2023 for achieving net worth of INR 25 Cr remains the same, the RBI stated.
In 2020, RBI introduced a payment aggregator framework to bring all PAs as regulated entities under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act (2007). Under the guidelines, the PAs were mandated to obtain a licence in order to acquire merchants and to deploy digital payments solutions.
