Groww & Worldline join growing club of India's online payment aggregators

This year, major players such as Amazon Pay, Digio, CCAvenue, Decentro, MSwipe, Tata Pay, Zoho, Zomato, among others, received a final nod from the regulator to operate as payment aggregators

Financial services platform Groww and digital payment processing company Worldline ePayments have secured RBI licence to operate as online payment aggregators. 

With Tuesday's additions, the number of firms getting the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) nod to operate as payment aggregators has touched 20 in the first four months of calendar year 2024.

Groww has secured the licence for its UPI payments platform Groww Pay.

Similarly, Worldline ePayments India, received the licence on Tuesday enabling the company to provide payment services for merchants including e-commerce firms or online businesses.  

“We work with merchants from various segments such as eCommerce, BFSI, retail, utilities, education, travel, and hospitality for digital payments. The authorisation from RBI is a testimony of our commitment to the Indian market and affirming our focus on compliance and highlighting the significance of a well-regulated payments landscape," said Ramesh Narasimhan, chief executive officer (CEO)-India, Wordline. 

This year major players such as Amazon Pay, Digio, CCAvenue, Decentro, MSwipe, Tata Pay, Zoho, Zomato, among others received a final nod from the banking regulator to operate as payment aggregators.

These companies have joined the ranks of other major market participants such as Razorpay, and Cashfree Payments who received their licence in December 2023 after a nearly one-year long ban from on-boarding new merchants.

There are over 28 companies who have received an in-principle approval from the RBI to operate as a payment aggregator.

It usually takes six months to one year after the in-principle nod for a company to get the final approval from the regulator.

Many companies have obtained their licenses this year as they have progressed through the final stages of approval after applying to become payment aggregators.

“I think it has come to the concluding stages for most of the companies which is why we are seeing a lot of applications coming through now. It’s just a process that is happening as everybody is clearing any queries that the RBI may have. The regulator had extended the timeline for a few companies till September 2023 to apply since some players could not apply in the initial phases pending compliance,” said Ramakrishnan Ramamurthy, EVP- India, Worldline.

In December last year, the regulator had granted the payment aggregator licence to seven companies, according to the RBI website. 

Last week, Prosus-backed fintech PayU received an in-principle approval from the RBI to operate as a payment aggregator.

The RBI defines payment aggregators as entities which facilitate e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment instruments from customers for the completion of their payment obligations without the need for merchants to create a separate payment integration system of their own. They enable merchants to connect with acquirers.

These companies act as intermediaries between the merchant and the customer. They are able to receive payments from customers, pool them, and transfer them onto the merchants after a time period, according to the regulator.