The Reserve Bank of India has issued new guidelines to regulate payment aggregators. These rules have come into effect immediately. Payment aggregators have been divided into three categories according to their work. Net-worth and capital conditions have been fixed for non-banks.
Payment Aggregator RBI Guidelines: The Reserve Bank of India on Monday issued new guidelines to regulate payment aggregators. These rules have come into effect immediately. Under the new guidelines, payment aggregators have been divided into three categories according to their work. These categories include PA-P, PA-CB and PA-O. PA-P is related to physical payment aggregators, PA-CB is cross border and PA-O is online payment aggregators.
Categories of payment aggregators
According to the new rules, payment aggregators have been divided into three categories. PA-P are those who do physical transactions. PA-CB are those who are associated with international transactions. PA-O are those who facilitate online transactions. Different rules and monitoring systems have been made for each category
Rules for banks and non-banks
Banks do not need to take any special permission to do the business of payment aggregator. On the other hand, the Reserve Bank has set minimum capital and net-worth conditions for non-banks. According to the new rules, the non-bank entity must have a minimum net-worth of Rs 15 crore at the time of application. This net-worth will have to be increased to Rs 25 crore by the end of the third financial year.
Fund Management and Escrow Account
In the guidelines, separate management of escrow account and fund management has been done. Aggregators will have to keep their customers’ funds in escrow account to keep them safe. Proper management and monitoring of funds will also be necessary. The purpose of this rule is to ensure the safety of customers’ money and transparency of transactions.
Limit for international transactions
A special limit has been set for PA-CB i.e. cross-border payment aggregators. These aggregators will have to work within the prescribed limit during international transactions. This will reduce the possibility of financial risk and fraud.
Criteria for promoters
According to the new guidelines, the promoters of payment aggregators will have to follow the fit and proper standard. This means that the promoters must be financially and morally qualified. This will ensure the credibility and security of the business.
The rule was brought in 2024
The Reserve Bank had issued draft guidelines for payment aggregators in April 2024. After this, opinions were taken from all the stakeholders. Now the final guidelines have been issued, which will promote transparency and security of the payment aggregator business.
