RBI grants payment aggregator licenses to Razorpay, Cashfree, Open Money and others

"We are now onboarding new merchants on our payment gateway. We are very excited about this new phase of our journey, where we continue to drive exponential growth and retain our market leadership as the preferred aggregator in the payments space," the statement added.

Razorpay echoed the excitement by announcing that they have received the final authorization from the RBI to operate as a Payment Aggregator under the Payment Settlements Act, 2007. The spokesperson emphasized that Razorpay is now open to onboarding new businesses on its Payment Gateway platform.

"We have great news to share with you! We are now open to onboard new businesses on our Payment Gateway platform! Razorpay has received the final authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Payment Aggregator (PA) under the Payment Settlements Act, 2007. Having received the new PA license, we now restart onboarding new customers and are committed to serving them with our industry-first payment solutions. We welcome this new development and are delighted to be one of the first Payment Gateways to have received the final PA license from RBI," the spokesperson said.

This comes a year after the RBI temporarily halted companies from onboarding merchants until they obtained the final nod for the PA license. The granting of these licenses is crucial for payment gateways to continue their operations.

The RBI had introduced a payment aggregator framework in March 2020, mandating that payment gateways obtain a license to acquire merchants and offer digital payment acceptance solutions. This regulatory framework aims to protect the interests of both consumers and businesses by ensuring that payment intermediaries adhere to specified standards.