Reserve Bank of India Penalises Pine Labs for Violating PPI Norms

Pine Labs, a prominent fintech company, was fined INR 3.1 lakh by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for noncompliance with regulations pertaining to PPIs. Officials from the central bank issued a statement saying they discovered Pine Labs broke PPI rules by giving out full-KYC PPIs without doing the necessary KYC checks.

The RBI imposed the fine following an examination of the business's operations that took place from July 2024 to May 2025. KYC compliance is a vital regulatory requirement to combat fraud and money laundering, as full-KYC PPIs have higher transaction and balance restrictions than minimum-detail PPIs.

RBI Pinpointing Mistakes Committed by Pine Labs

The central bank served the business with a show-cause notice after the examination. The RBI went on to explain that it had considered the company's response to the notice, its own submissions, and the oral arguments presented during the personal hearing. Based on this, it had concluded that the company had been charged with issuing multiple full-KYC PPIs without completing the KYC of the PPI holders, which warranted the imposition of a monetary penalty.

Pine Labs accepted the RBI's fine but claimed in a stock filing that it would not affect the company's finances, operations, or anything else. Subsequently, the financial technology behemoth alerted stock markets that Mopay Services Pvt Ltd (MSPL), a fully owned subsidiary, has chosen to voluntarily begin the procedure to remove its name off the RoC.

MSPL is completely dormant and not involved in any commercial endeavours. The business has so chosen to start the procedure of changing its name in order to simplify its group structure and cut costs in administrative and compliance costs. After two or three months, pending regulatory clearance, MSPL will stand dissolved and no longer be a subsidiary of Pine Labs.

Financial Dynamics of Pine Lab?

In Q3 FY26, the full-stack fintech startup announced its second consecutive successful quarter. Its verticals include payments, loyalty and rewards, API banking, merchant software, and more. While Pine Lab lost INR 56.7 Cr in the third quarter of FY25, it turned a profit of INR 42.4 Cr in the fourth quarter. In the December quarter of 2025, its operating revenue surged 24% year-on-year to INR 744.3 Cr, while EBITDA surged 237% to INR 155 Cr.