The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted ‘in-principal approval’ to 32 existing payment aggregators, including Amazon Pay, Google India and Reliance Payment Solutions, to act as online payment aggregators.

The central bank said applications are under process for an additional 18 existing payment aggregators, including PhonePe and BhartiPay Services. 

The central bank said it is considering 18 other applications including PhonePe and BhartiPay Services. 

The applications of four aggregators, including Axis Bank-led FreeCharge, PayTM Payments and PayU Payments, have been returned. They can apply to the RBI within 120 days from the date of return. Until then, these entities cannot onboard new merchants.

The others who have received in-principle authorisation are Cashfree Payments, Pine Labs, Razorpay Software, Zomato Payments, Infibeam Avenues, Innoviti Payment Solutions, Lyra Network, NSDL Database Management, Open Financial Technologies and CAMSPay, among others

"All stakeholders are advised to transact with only those existing PAs who have been granted in-principle authorisation or whose application is currently under process," the RBI said in a statement.

Online non-bank payment aggregators (PAs) existing as on March 17, 2020 were required to apply to the RBI by September 30, 2021 for seeking authorisation under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSS Act). 

Another extension was allowed for the PAs to submit their application by September 30, 2022.

As per RBI rules, a firm applying for PA authorisation has to have a minimum net worth of Rs 15 crore in the first year of application, which should go up to Rs 25 crore by the second year.

The firm also must fulfil ‘fit and proper’ criteria and be compliant with global payment security standards under PCI-DSS.