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Payment services providers Razorpay and Pine Labs‘ fintech infrastructure startup Setu are among the first to receive an in-principle nod from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a payment aggregator licence, which will help them offer merchant payment services.

Nikhil Kumar, Co-founder, Setu, which was last month acquired by Pine Labs, broke the news on Twitter that the startup’s unit, Agya Technologies, had received the in-principle licence.

“Super excited and stoked to share our subsidiary, Agya Technologies, has received an in-principle licence for Account Aggregator,” he said on the social media platform, adding “The licence enables us to now go deeper and power AA (account aggregator) for every single bank, NBFC, and fintech in India.”

The central bank introduced the Payment Aggregator framework in 2020 in which it mandated that all payment aggregators would need to be authorised by it to be able to provide merchants with payment services.

The framework also stipulates that all companies that receive the licence will come under the RBI’s direct purview.

Neither Pine Labs, nor Razorpay immediately responded to YourStory request for comment.

Moneycontrol and The Economic Times reported the news first, citing sources aware of the development.

The RBI has asked the companies that have received the in-principal approval to conduct an audit within the next six months to get the final sign-off, Moneycontrol reported.

A host of other players, including PhonePe, BharatPe, CRED, Paytm, etc., have also applied for the licence.

The official list from the RBI is expected to come soon.