Amazon Pay, Adyen, BillDesk get India cross-border payment licences: what are the platform companies for three-way payments in India

Amazon Pay India, global payments giant Adyen, and fintech startup BillDesk recently received approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to carry out cross-border payment aggregator operations.Details released by the RBI show that Cashfree received the licence on July 22, while Adyen and Amazon Pay received it on July 25, and BillDesk on 29 July. With these approvals, the three companies join Cashfree Payments as entities holding cross-border payment aggregator (PA) licences.

The PA-CB licence enables payment companies to offer payment services in the import and export sector. India is a huge market for international remittances and many freelancers work for global companies overseas, providing a huge opportunity for these cross-border payment aggregators. According to the newly released Economic Survey 2024 report, it is predicted that by 2025, India will receive $129 billion worth of remittances. These businesses can work with Indian exporters to help them accept payments in international currencies. They can also assist international brands to sell in India and accept popular local payment methods in exchange for goods and services.

In October last year, RBI directed fintech startups to apply for PA licences to process online cross-border transactions involving import and export of goods and services. As per the existing regulations, the applicant must be registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit of India (FIU-IND) for authorisation to process such payments. Further, while applying for a licence, the applicant must maintain a net worth of at least INR 150 million. This threshold will be raised to INR 250 million after March 2026. According to the Central Bank, if fintech startups offering these services fail to meet the net worth requirement by this deadline, they will have to suspend their platform operations.

Currently, the Central Bank of India is actively issuing payment aggregator licences to applicants. Since December last year, RBI has approved PA applications from more than 20 fintech startups, including Groww, Juspay, Decentro, CRED, and Amazon Pay.