PayU’s India play is too complex for RBI’s liking

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Editor's note: It’s been a tough few months for PayU India. In October, Prosus, its Amsterdam-based parent company, backed out of a $4.7 billion deal to acquire rival BillDesk. Also, last year, the central bank’s digital lending guidelines kicked in, forcing LazyPay (PayU’s buy now pay later arm) to rework its operations, like most other pure-play online financiers. In December, the firm also fired nearly 150 employees citing “organizational realignment”, The Economic Times reported.    The last straw was in January, when the Reserve Bank of India reportedly rejected the firm’s plea to carry on operations as a payment gateway. Last month, the RBI released a list of over 50 existing and new entities that were granted payment aggregator licenses. PayU was among the four existing firms that didn’t make the list, apart from Paytm Payments, Freecharge and Tapits Technologies. The rejection comes as a blow to PayU. The fintech firm, which provides online payment services for customers across Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, counts India among its most crucial operations. The country accounts for almost half the volumes …