The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted in-principle approval to 32 payment aggregators which include Amazon Pay, Google India Digital Services Pvt Ltd, Infibeam Avenues Ltd, Reliance Payment Solutions among others.

The RBI is also considering 18 other applications including that of PhonePe and BhartiPay Services. The central bank has returned applications of four aggregators — Axis Bank led FreeCharge, PayTM Payments and PayU Payments.

Aggregators, whose applications have been returned would be able to re-apply to the RBI within 120 days from the date of return.

“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 today. The firms, authorised to operate as payment aggregators will come under the direct regulatory ambit of the central bank.

RBI introduced the payment aggregator framework, formally in March 2020. Only firms that have been approved by the RBI can acquire and offer payment services.

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