Context: After a year-long discussion with the stakeholders, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has finally brought payment aggregators and gateways under its direct regulatory ambit.
About New guidlines

• The new guidelines say that a payment aggregator (entities that facilitate e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment instruments) should be a company incorporated in India under the Companies Act, 1956 / 2013.
• This essentially means payment gateways such as Paytm, Mobikwik, Bharat Bill and aggregators like BillDesk, PayU India, CCAvenue, Razorpay will be directly regulated by the RBI to bring more transparency, accountability and security for consumers.
• According to the RBI, the criteria of authorisation is based on the role of the intermediary in the handling of funds. Banks, which provide payments aggregation services as part of their regular banking relationship, do not require a separate authorisation from RBI. 
• But non-bank payments aggregators will require authorisation from RBI under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. Existing non-bank entities offering payment aggregation services will have to apply for authorisation on or before June 30, 2021(i.e. to apply for fresh licences).
• Separately, RBI has outlined that e-commerce marketplaces providing payment aggregation services shall not continue this activity beyond the deadline mentioned above. If they do so, they shall be separated from the marketplace business, and will have to apply for authorisation before the same timeline.
• In the guideline, RBI has also made it necessary for payments aggregators and gateways to appoint a nodal officer responsible for regulatory and customer grievance handling functions.

Capital Requirement

• As far as capital requirement is concerned, an existing payment aggregator will have to achieve a net-worth of Rs 15 crore by March 31, 2021, and a net-worth of Rs 25 crore by the end of the third financial year, on or before March 31, 2023. 
• After the third financial year, these payment aggregators will have to maintain the net-worth mark of Rs 25 crore.
• For new entities, they will need to have a minimum net-worth of Rs 15 crore at the time of application for authorisation and will have to attain a net-worth of Rs 25 crore by the end of the third financial year, the RBI directives said.

Disclosure Requirements

• PAs need to disclose comprehensive information regarding merchant policies, customer grievances, privacy policy and other terms and conditions on the website and / or their mobile application.
• They need to undertake background and antecedent checks of the merchants to ensure that such merchants do not have any malafide intention of duping customers, and do not sell fake / counterfeit / prohibited product

About Payment aggregators(PAs) and Payment gateways(PGs)

• PAs are entities that facilitate e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment instruments from the customers for completion of their payment obligations without the need for merchants to create a separate payment integration system of their own. PAs facilitate merchants to connect with acquirers. In the process, they receive payments from customers, pool and transfer them on to the merchants after a time period.eg Paytm, Mobikwik, Bharat Bill and aggregators like BillDesk, PayU India.
• While PGs are entities that provide technology infrastructure to route and facilitate processing of an online payment transaction without any involvement in handling of funds.eg Banks and NBFC.

Basic Difference between them are:-

• A Payment Gateway allows the merchants to deal in a specific payment option put on the portal, whereas a Payment Aggregator allows one to have multitudes of options for payment. Thus, a Payment Aggregator covers a payment gateway in its ambit.
• Inshort a gateway is something that connects to a merchant account and converts billing info into something that is processable.  In real world terms, the gateway is the equivalent to the swipe machine you might use at your grocery store. 
• A payment aggregator is someone who is accepting payments on behalf of other merchants.  Paytm and PayPal are very popular payment aggregators.

In the processing of an online transaction the following timelines are involved:

• ‘Tp’ – date of charge / debit to the customer’s account against the purchase of goods / services.
• ‘Ts’ – date of intimation by the merchant to the intermediary about shipment of goods.
• ‘Td’ – date of confirmation by the merchant to the intermediary about delivery of goods to the customer.
• ‘Tr’ – date of expiry of refund period as fixed by the merchant.