On April 16, 2024, the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) issued a press release with draft directions
for regulation of payment aggregators (PAs) that
facilitate payments at physical point of sale (referred to as,
PA-P), i.e., offline PAs. The proposed regulation
is in addition to the existing regulatory framework applicable to
PAs that facilitate payments at online points of sale (referred to
as, PA-O), i.e., online PAs.
PA-Ps are involved in facilitation of face-to-face / proximity
payments at physical locations of the merchants, whereas PA-Os are
involved in facilitation of payments for e-commerce
transactions.
The draft directions (collectively, Draft
Directions) have been prescribed in two parts, namely: