RBI's Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) Licence Secured by Cashfree Payments

Nitin Konde, Varun Bhardwaj

Oct 31, 2024 — 2 min read

RBI's Prepaid Payment Instrument License to Cashfree Payments

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted Cashfree Payments, a prominent player in the payments and API banking industry in India, a Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) licence.

The RBI has granted Cashfree Payments the Payment Aggregator (PA), Payment Aggregator-Cross Border (PA-CB), and Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) licenses, making it one of the first fintechs to attain these licenses. With the use of this licence, the firm will be able to offer improved digital payment options via prepaid instruments, making transactions between companies and their clients easier.

A new avenue for innovation in the payments industry is made possible by the PPI licence. The company's goal has always been to give Indian businesses and its clients safe, adaptable, and effective payment experiences. According to Cashfree Payments CEO and cofounder Akash Sinha, the PPI license will assist Cashfree Payments in developing products that enable online companies to maintain and expand their customer base.

Cashfree Payments Expanding its Operations

In July, the business acquired a cross-border payment aggregator licence, allowing import and export transactions. It happened after the RBI gave it a payment aggregator licence in December 2023, enabling it to function in the online merchant payment market.

Cashfree Payments, which was founded in 2015 by Sinha and Reeju Datta, collects payments, pays vendors, disburses wages, reimburses expenses in bulk, and offers loyalty benefits to about 600,000 enterprises in India. The company handles transactions totalling approximately $80 billion yearly. Supported by investors including State Bank of India, Y Combinator, and Apis Partners, the business has also introduced products in eight additional nations, including the US, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates.

The National Payments Corporation of India certified Cashfree Payments earlier this month for its Unified Payments Interface Switch service, which enables it to interface directly with any bank's core systems to provide its merchants with greater transaction success rates.

'Piramal Pay' Likewise Also Received RBI's Nod

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also granted permission to Piramal Payment Services Limited, a division of Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Ltd, to launch and run its "Piramal Pay" prepaid payment instrument (PPI) service.

The company emphasised that this authorisation, which was given in accordance with the Payment and Settlement Systems Act of 2007, is a major step towards providing millions of users throughout India with cutting-edge digital financial products. With this latest accreditation, Piramal Payment Services becomes one of the few RBI-approved Payment System Operators all geared up to improve the nation's digital transaction environment.

The company further stated that "Piramal Pay" is intended to make financial transactions easy, safe, and convenient for both consumers and companies.