Definition
Payment Aggregator (PA)
A payment aggregator is an RBI-authorised entity that lets merchants accept various digital payments without each building their own bank integration, pooling and settling funds to them.
A payment aggregator (PA) onboards merchants and provides them a single integration to accept cards, UPI, net banking and wallets. The PA collects customer payments into an escrow account and then settles the proceeds to merchants, handling reconciliation and compliance.
Under RBI's PA/PG framework, aggregators that handle funds must obtain authorisation, maintain a prescribed net worth and keep customer money in an escrow account with strict settlement timelines. They cannot store full card data and must follow data-localisation norms.
PAs differ from pure payment gateways, which only provide the technical rails; the aggregator's defining feature is that it touches and settles the money.
Related terms
- Tokenisation of CardsCard tokenisation replaces your actual card number stored by merchants with a unique, device- or merchant-specific token, so real card details are never saved or exposed online.
Plain-English explainer from The Dispatch Investors Encyclopedia. General information, not financial advice.