News: After nearly a year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted the ban on payment aggregators Razorpay and Cashfree.

The approval from the RBI will empower the payment companies to bring new merchants onto their platforms for facilitating online payment processing.

A spokesperson from Cashfree Payments remarked, “Obtaining the Payment Aggregator (PA) license from the RBI is a crucial milestone for Cashfree Payments, validating our commitment to compliance and emphasizing the importance of a well-regulated payments environment. We are currently in the process of onboarding new merchants onto our payment gateway. This marks an exciting new phase in our journey, where we aim to sustain exponential growth and maintain our market leadership as the preferred aggregator in the payments space.“

A spokesperson from Razorpay stated, “With the receipt of the new Payment Aggregator (PA) license, we are resuming the onboarding process for new customers and are dedicated to serving them with our pioneering payment solutions. We welcome this positive development and are pleased to be among the first Payment Gateways to secure the final PA license from the RBI.“

Last year, the RBI instructed Razorpay, Cashfree, PayU, and Paytm, who held in-principal approvals for payment aggregator licenses, to halt onboarding new merchants until they obtained the final license.

Paytm and PayU India are still awaiting clarification. “We have resubmitted our application and are waiting for a decision,” mentioned PayU India.

In the previous year, the RBI directed these payment aggregators to temporarily suspend the onboarding of new online merchants until additional documents were submitted. Since then, the companies have been engaged in ongoing discussions with the regulator.

Razorpay, PayU India, and Cashfree, as per a statement from a payment aggregator official, previously held a substantial market share, accounting for about 70-80% of new merchant account onboarding. In their absence over the past year, new merchants have turned to other assertive players like Infibeam Avenues, PhonePe, and others.