NTT Data’s Indian Subsidiary Gets RBI Nod For Payment Aggregator Licence

Tokyo-based NTT Data’s Indian subsidiary NTT Data Payment Services India (formerly known as Atom Technologies) has received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a payment aggregator (PA) licence.

NTT joins the list of fintech startups such as Mswipe, Innoviti, Razorpay and Pine Labs to have received the payment aggregator licence. 

With the licence, the company can now act as an aggregator that processes online transactions on behalf of merchants and provides several digital payment modes to the end-consumers such as card and bank transfers, UPI, and more. 

In a statement, Dewang Neralla, CEO of the Indian subsidiary, said that the payment aggregator licence will add fresh impetus to its commitment and vision of providing financial services and products, in line with the ‘Digital India’ vision.

Founded in 2005 and led by Neralla, Mumbai-based payment services provider Atom Technologies was acquired by the Japanese payment conglomerate in 2018. At that time, it was one of the high-profile deals within the Indian fintech space.

NTT Data later rebranded the company into NTT Data Payment Services India. The company’s product portfolio includes payment processing via online banking and internet payment gateway, interactive voice response (IVR) and mobile computing as well as point of sale (PoS) services, wallets, BNPL and several other white-labelled financial solutions.

It processes annual transactions worth INR 1.5 Lakh Cr and has a volume of over 10 Cr transactions across 6 Mn merchants in the country.

The central bank introduced the payment aggregator framework in 2020. It aims to bring all regulated entities (such as Razorpay, MSwipe, Innoviti and NTT) under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act (2007), mandating the need for a licence to acquire merchants and deploy digital payment solutions.

Fintech startups that act as payment aggregators and had a net worth of INR 15 Cr as of FY22 can apply for the licence with the RBI by September 30, 2022. 

Notably, over 180 fintech startups, including PhonePe and CRED, have applied for the licence.

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