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Payments infra company Infibeam Avenues gets RBI approval to operate as payment aggregator
Published by Financial Express | 27th October, 2022
Credit and finance for MSMEs: The central bank in March 2022 had issued a framework for payment aggregators in India and mandated to obtain a license for acquiring merchants and providing them with digital payment acceptance solutions.

Credit and finance for MSMEs: Payments infrastructure company Infibeam Avenues on Thursday said it has received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a payment aggregator. The approval will provide a substantial boost to the company to further expand its reach in multiple business segments for both online and recently launched offline digital transactions. Infibeam operates the digital payment gateway CCAvenue.

The company said it has the highest portfolio of payment options for merchants with over 200 plus multi-currency payment options in India alone with a run rate of 4 lakh crore annually across the platform. "Given its wide network across industry verticals and quantum of transaction processing volume (TPV), Infibeam's flagship brand CCAvenue is well placed to leverage the new role as a payment aggregator and help bring a greater number of micro-entrepreneurs under the fold of e-commerce."

Vishal Mehta, Managing Director at Infibeam Avenues said CCAvenue is already one of the top payment gateway brands in India, delivering superior digital products and services to the majority of financial institutions, SMEs, MSMEs and merchants.

"With regulators entrusting faith in us, we promise to ourselves to make all Indian kiranas and merchants Digital, Credible & Bankable (DCB). As more merchants transact digitally, the more they gain financial credibility and the more they will be bankable for banks to offer loans, as this boosts their business and the nation's economy," he said.

The central bank in March 2022 had issued a framework for payment aggregators in India and mandated to obtain a license for acquiring merchants and providing them with digital payment acceptance solutions. Payment aggregator provides an easy and affordable way of accepting payments to help small businesses adapt to digital ways in a streamlined manner.

Infibeam recently launched CCAvenue mobile app which features a pin-on-glass SoftPoS solution - CCAvenue TapPay for merchants and kiranas across the country. The merchants can download it for free and convert any Android phone into a payment acceptance terminal without the need for a PoS machine. Currently, 6.4 million merchants are on Infibeam's platform, which increased by an average of 8,000 per day in the first quarter of this fiscal.

Among other fintechs getting RBI approval for payment aggregator license included Razorpay, Cashfree, Mswipe, Easebuzz, NTT Data, 1Pay, Innoviti, etc. The market for digital payments in the country recorded around 71 billion payments in FY22, according to the data company Statista. The total transaction value is expected to grow at 22.03 per cent CAGR during the 2022-27 period resulting in a projected total amount of $53.59 billion by 2027.