RBI mulls bringing payment aggregators, gateways under direct supervision

The consultation paper includes a condition that the payment gateways and aggregators have to have a minimum net worth of Rs 100 crore.
RBI mulls bringing payment aggregators, gateways under direct supervision
RBI mulls bringing payment aggregators, gateways under direct supervision
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The Reserve Bank of India has issued a fresh consultation paper relating to payment gateways and payment aggregators. This was announced as part of the Monetary Policy which RBI announced in February this year.

In the consultation paper, RBI says all the payment gateways and aggregators will have to be brought under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSSA) and with oversight by the Reserve Bank of India.

The discussion paper is titled ‘Guidelines for Payment Gateways and Payment Aggregators’. The highlights of the recommendations in the paper include a condition that the payment gateways and aggregators have to have a minimum net worth of Rs 100 crore. The players will be given a period of one year from the date the guidelines get issued by RBI officially to comply. This Rs 100 crore minimum net worth has to be maintained at all times and this is precisely the same threshold followed in the case of Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units (BBPOUs).

The discussion paper also mentions that the funds collected by the payment gateways and aggregators will be kept in an escrow account with one of the scheduled commercial banks.

The payment gateways handle funds on behalf of their customers without their holding them in their possession. They act as the mediators allowing funds from the bank accounts of the customers to be credited to online sources they make purchases from. They act very useful to the e-commerce platforms which accept payments from buyers on their platforms. There is no need for these e-commerce ventures to invest heavily in a payment infrastructure of their own. They just need to hook onto one of the payment aggregators and they are good to go.

The next step will obviously be for the discussion paper to be ‘discussed’ and once the stakeholders have expressed their suggestions, the RBI can go back and give the guidelines a final shape and make them official.

The one-year period being given should be sufficient enough for the serious players in the space to comply.

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