ARTICLE · 03 OCTOBER 2025

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RBI Master Direction On Regulation Of Payment Aggregators, 2025: Analysis Of Key Developments

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In a landmark move to streamline and update the regulatory landscape for payment intermediaries, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued the Master Direction on Regulation...

IndiaFinance and Banking

Namita Viswanath

Raghav Muthanna

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Introduction

As digital payments have seen a steep rise in India, the Reserve Bank of India ("RBI") has progressively refined its regulatory framework for payment intermediaries. With the issuance of the Master Direction on Regulation of Payment Aggregators, 2025 ¹ ("Master Directions"), the RBI has consolidated and harmonised the erstwhile regulatory regime applicable to domestic payment aggregators ("PAs") and crossborder PAs ("PA-CBs") under the Guidelines on Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways of 2020 ² ("PAPG Guidelines, 2020") read with clarification issued thereto in 2021 ³ ("Clarification to PAPG Guidelines, 2021") (collectively, the "PAPG Guidelines"), and the Regulation of Payment Aggregator – Cross Border (PA - Cross Border), 2023 ("PA-CB Regulations"). ⁴

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