Amid a flurry of initiatives, PayPal has received an in-principle nod to become a cross-border payments aggregator in one of the world’s largest markets.
In recent years, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has brought cross-border payments under a tighter regulatory framework, requiring all companies to obtain a payment aggregator cross-border (PA-CB) license.
Due to the stringent guidelines, only a handful of organizations were permitted to operate as cross-border payments providers a year after the proposal was introduced: Adyen, Amazon Pay, BillDesk, and Cashfree Payments. Earlier this year, India’s Skydo was added to that list.
According to the Times of India, PayPal will now enter a market that processed $73.8 billion in outbound shipments in April alone, spanning roughly 200 international markets.
A Surging Market
Although India is a hotbed for cross-border payments, the market has surged worldwide. As a result, numerous solutions have cropped up to process these transactions.
A recent report from Visa found that 77% of consumers still rely on multiple payment methods for international transactions. The study also revealed that the average consumer uses four different payment methods for cross-border payments, and most respondents are actively seeking a single provider to meet their needs.
Significant Launches and Promotions
This has been a tall order, as cross-border transactions continue to face challenges like regulatory barriers, high transaction fees, slow processing times, and a lack of transparency. Although PayPal is not yet a unified cross-border payments solution, the company has introduced a series of initiatives that may enhance its global reach.
For example, PayPal recently inked a deal with Coinbase to remove fees for purchases of its PYUSD stablecoin, aiming to encourage broader adoption. The company also announced that customers will be able to earn 3.7% interest when holding the stablecoin in their PayPal or Venmo accounts.
Additionally, PayPal launched its first mobile wallet, positioned to compete with Apple Pay and Google Pay for in-store payments. The company also entered the agentic commerce space through a new deal that integrates PayPal payments into Perplexity’s AI chat.
Should all these efforts gain traction, PayPal could strengthen its standing in an increasingly dynamic market.
The post PayPal Gets Approval to Facilitate Cross-Border Payments in India appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
