E-commerce giant Amazon India has received approval from the Reserve Bank of India to operate a prepaid instrument or digital wallet. The development comes at a time when the digital payments space is witnessing a high level of engagement by leading internet-based start-ups in the country.
The Amazon Online Distribution Services, subsidiary of Amazon Asia Pacific Resources, was given the license on March 22, which will be valid till the end of FY22. Amazon invested £15 million in AODS last year. Following its footsteps, Flipkart too holds plans for its own payments business under the PhonePe brand. Flipkart Group CEO Binny Bansal revealed in an interview last week that a significant part of the company's latest $1.4-billion fund raise will be deployed towards PhonePe.
Amazon has been promoting Amazon Pay since the beginning of 2017. The wallet allows users to pay online on the marketplace, making the check-in and check-out process simple by using information already stored in the Amazon account.
