Amazon Pay gets final approval from RBI to operate as payment aggregator

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Amazon Pay, the fintech arm of e-commerce major Amazon India, has received a payment aggregator licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the company said on Monday.

The fintech firm joins a list of companies that the central bank has granted authorisation to operate as payment aggregators (PA) recently.

“We are excited and thankful to receive the final authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to function as a payment aggregator. We remain committed to simplify lives and fulfill the aspirations of merchants and customers,” an Amazon Pay spokesperson said in response to queries sent by Business Standard.

The company added that the authorisation from the banking regulator would enable it to strengthen its distribution channels.

“This allows us to further strengthen our distribution channels and deliver innovative solutions for our merchants and customers across India, providing them with secure, convenient, and rewarding digital payment experiences,” the spokesperson added.

This month, two fintech startups, Decentro and Juspay, and enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm Zoho have received final authorisation from the RBI for payment aggregator (PA) licences.

Food delivery major Zomato, and fintech firms Stripe and Tata Pay were among the companies to have bagged the licence in January. They joined the likes of Razorpay, Cashfree Payments, and EnKash, who got approval last year.

The RBI defines PAs 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.

PAs enable merchants to connect with acquirers. They are able to receive payments from customers, pool them, and transfer them onto the merchants after a time period, according to the regulator.

These companies act as intermediaries between the merchant and the customer.