Hitachi Payment Services has received in-principle authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to act as a payment aggregator.

Payment aggregators (PAs) are entities that facilitate e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment instruments from customers for the completion of their payment obligations. PAs facilitate merchants to connect with acquirers.  

The payment aggregator licence will augment its digital solutions stack with various online payment solutions such as UPI, net banking, cards and wallets. This will enable its B2B (business-to-business) customers to provide all digital payment products along with value-added services such as EMI, PaylaterPay later loyalty solutions to their merchants. Thus, effectively allowing them to offer one-stop digital payment services. 

The company claims to power over one billion digital transactions annually for some of the leading banks, payment aggregators and fintech in the country. According to a company statement, its next-gen merchant mobile platform enables innovative solutions such as SoftPOS, value-added services such as Dynamic Currency Conversion, EMI and a complete digital merchant management solution including Digital onboarding among others.

Rustom Irani, managing director (MP) of Hitachi Payment Services, said, “The payment aggregator authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India acts as a catalyst in boosting our mission of empowering merchants with convenient digital payment modes and further strengthens our vision of building a robust digital payment ecosystem in India. In effect, it will enable easy access to digital payments for the masses and further contribute to the Digital India initiative, driving financial empowerment for all.”

Anuj Khosla, chief executive officer (CEO) of Digital Business, Hitachi Payment Services, added, “The payment aggregator licence from the Reserve Bank of India is a testament to our commitment to drive digital inclusivity while keeping the needs of key stakeholders such as merchants and customers in focus. The licence will further enhance our merchant portfolio, enabling us to offer a comprehensive range of innovative and merchant-friendly digital payment solutions to merchants nationwide.”

In recent times other companies like fintech firm BharatPe and MSwipe Technologies have also received in-principle authorisation to act as a payment aggregator.