The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced new directives tightening supervision of cross-border payment operations.
Entities like online payment gateway service providers (OPGSPs) and collection agents now fall under the Payment Aggregator – Cross Border (PA–CB) category, subject to direct RBI supervision, a shift from previous regulations.
According to the banker’s bank, these directives aim to streamline the cross-border payment operations, emphasising compliance and transparency within the trade ecosystem.
Entities providing the PA–CB services must apply for authorisation by 30 April 2024, categorising themselves for facilitating export, import or both transactions. They must comply within three months with directives including governance, merchant policies, customer grievance redressal, technology requirements, and KYC norms.
PA–CB service providers must also meet minimum net worth requirements initially of INR150 million (USD1.8 million), rising to INR250 million within three years.
Transaction limits are increased to INR2.5 million per unit of goods or services, a significant deviation from prior norms.
Procedures for sourcing transactions, conducting due diligence and handling funds for import and export transactions are detailed, ensuring adherence to RBI-prescribed norms.
