The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted ban on payment aggregators Razorpay and Cashfree after almost a year.

The RBI’s authorization will enable the payment companies to onboard new merchants onto its platform for processing online payments. Both Cashfree and Razorpay confirmed the development to Mint. Cashfree Payments spokesperson said, “Securing the Payment Aggregator (PA) licence from the RBI is a pivotal moment for Cashfree Payments, affirming our focus on compliance and highlighting the significance of a well-regulated payments landscape. We are now onboarding new merchants on our payment gateway. We are very excited about this new phase of our journey, where we continue to drive exponential growth and retain our market leadership as the preferred aggregator in the payments space.” Last year, the central bank asked Razorpay, Cashfree, PayU, and , which hold in-principal approvals for payment aggregator licence, to stop on-boarding new merchants till they get the final licence. It is not clear whether the ban on Paytm and PayU India are lifted yet or not. Paytm and PayU India are yet to respond to Mint’s queries. Last year, RBI asked these aggregators to temporarily withhold onboarding new online merchants till additional documents are submitted. The companies were in constant talks with the regulator ever since then. Razorpay, PayU India and Cashfree, according to one of the payment aggregator officials, earlier accounted for about 70-80% market share in terms of onboarding new merchant accounts. With top four out of action since last one year, new merchants have been going with some of the other aggressive players such as , PhonePe and others.