Ban on Razorpay, Cashfree lifted; RBI gives nod to onboard online payment merchants

5 months ago 70

Dec 19, 2023 09:57 PM IST

RBI's ban on Razorpay and Cashfree has been lifted after a year, paving way for the platforms to act as payment aggregators once again in India.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted the year-long ban on online payment platforms Razorpay and Cashfree in India, giving the two companies the nod to act as payment aggregators (PA) for other merchants.

RBI has lifted the ban on Razorpay and Cashfree after PA license (File) RBI has lifted the ban on Razorpay and Cashfree after PA license (File)

On December 16, RBI had paused the functioning of Razorpay, Cashfree and other players in online payments in view of violations of the RBI advisory. Now, the reserve bank has given them the nod to onboard other merchants for online payment tie-ups.

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Cashfree wrote on a LinkedIn post on December 19, "We have received the final authorisation to operate as a payment aggregator by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). We are thrilled to announce that we are now onboarding businesses on Cashfree Payment Gateway."

Further, Razorpay told Moneycontrol in an official statement, "We are now open to onboarding new businesses on our Payment Gateway platform. Razorpay has now received the final authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Payment Aggregator (PA) under the Payment Settlements Act, 2007."

Earlier, RBI had banned entities like Razorpay and Cashfree for acting as payment gateways for merchants and online transaction platforms without a PA license, violating the RBI guidelines.

Razorpay, Cashfree get PA license ahead of Paytm

Through the PA license, these entities will be able to allow merchants and e-commerce platforms to accept online transactions through various formats like net banking, UPI, Credit/Debit cards, without the merchants creating their own systems.

Currently, online payment platforms like Paytm, PayU and JusPay are awaiting the final nod from RBI to operate online as a PA, taking Cashfree and Razorpay one step ahead of these platforms.

While Pine Labs, Razorpay and Stripe were to first to get their payment aggregator license in India in 2022, they had been awaiting the go-ahead from RBI for over a year. RBI only grants the PA license after conducting a detailed audit, which could take months.

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