BharatPe Gets in-principle nod from RBI to Operate as Online Payment Aggregator: Fintech platform BharatPe said it has received in-principle authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as an online payment aggregator (PA). According to the company, Resilient Payments Private Ltd, a fully-owned subsidiary of Resilient Innovations Private Ltd, received an in-principle approval (BharatPe).
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RBI’s nod comes amid a slew of high profile exits the Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global-backed firm, which has been battling controversies since last year. It is currently fighting a court battle with its former co-founder Ashneer Grover alleging financial misappropriation. In March of last year, Grover was removed.
About the payment aggregator framework:
- Payment aggregators are entities that facilitate e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment instruments from the customers. The merchants do not need to create a separate payment integration system of their own.
- Under the payment aggregator framework, which was formally launched in March 2020, only businesses that have been approved by the RBI are permitted to purchase and provide payment services to merchants.
- RBI has been strict in its evaluation of entities that have applied for the payment aggregator licence.
- Multiple online payment gateways seeking the aggregator licence came under intense scrutiny from the central bank for – know-your-customer (KYC) related issues, past dealings with cryptocurrency exchanges and gaming apps, and for not complying with the net worth criteria that RBI had set out.
- Some fintech firms like Razorpay, Pine Labs, Open, Cahfree, 1Pay have already received RBI approval for PA in the last few months. Over 185 fintech enterprises and startups which had submitted their proposals for a payment aggregator licence.
