Payment arms of US technology majors Amazon and Google, along with Reliance Payment Solutions, that is part of Reliance Jio Infocomm, were among the 32 firms given in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as online payment aggregators.

Online payment aggregators are entities that on-board digital merchants and accept payments on their behalf after getting a licence by the banking regulator.

RBI has released a list with current application status for all payment aggregators, saying it is in the interest of greater transparency. The list, the banking regulator said, would be updated every fortnight. The current status is as of February 15 and scrutiny of applications is still underway.

RBI said it is still considering 18 applications, including from PhonePe and BhartiPay Services.

Separately, RBI also returned four applications, including those of Axis Bank-led FreeCharge, Paytm Payments and PayU Payments. While Paytm’s application was returned on November 25 last year, the request by PayU was sent back on January 10 this year.

All stakeholders are advised to transact with only those existing payment aggregators that have been granted in-principle authorization, or whose application is currently under process according to central bank.

Entities that have had their applications returned can apply to RBI within 120 days from the date of the central bank’s decision. Until then, they cannot onboard new merchants.

According to RBI rules, the eligibility criteria for a company applying for an aggregator authorization is a minimum net worth of Rs. 15 crore in the first year of application, subsequently climbing up to Rs. 25 crore by the second year. It also must fulfil the ‘fit and proper’ criteria and be compliant with global payment security standards.