RNFI Services gets RBI in-principle nod for in-store payment aggregation
RNFI Services has received RBI in-principle approval to operate as a Physical Payment Aggregator, allowing it to aggregate offline and in-store payments through its last-mile distribution, technology and field network. Final authorisation remains subject to RBI conditions.
What happened
RNFI Services received RBI in-principle approval to operate as a Physical Payment Aggregator, enabling offline and in-store payment aggregation through its
Key facts
- Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007
Why this matters
RNFI’s move into physical payment aggregation may make it a more relevant partner or competitive benchmark for firms targeting assisted commerce, merchant acquiring and offline checkout infrastructure.
What to watch
- RBI final authorisation, disclosed compliance conditions and the timeline from in-principle approval to go-live.
- Merchant onboarding and active-device growth, particularly in rural, semi-urban and assisted-retail locations.
- Transaction volume, average ticket size, payment mix between UPI, cards and cash-assisted flows, and merchant retention.
- New bank-acquirer, fintech, retail-chain or device-distribution partnerships.
- Evidence that RNFI can monetise payments through value-added services rather than interchange or MDR alone.
- Any RBI enforcement, security incidents, settlement delays or tighter regulation of offline payment aggregators.
- Complete RBI conditions for final Physical Payment Aggregator authorisation, including governance, settlement, KYC and cybersecurity controls.
- Prioritise deployment to existing assisted-service outlets and high-cash-use merchant clusters where RNFI's field network reduces onboarding friction.
- Package offline acceptance with merchant onboarding, cash-in/cash-out, bill payment, remittance and working-capital referral products.
- Seek acquiring-bank, card-network, UPI and device-provider partnerships to support QR, card and interoperable in-store acceptance.
- Build merchant analytics and reconciliation tools to convert payment volumes into retention, credit underwriting and retailer commerce services.