PB Fintech has activated its newly approved PB Pay platform, enabling merchant onboarding and transaction processing across multiple digital payment methods, marking a strategic expansion beyond financial product distribution amid a competitive landscape.
PB Fintech has switched on commercial operations at PB Pay, turning the payments arm it won regulatory approval for in February into a live business that can onboard merchants and process transactions across UPI, cards and net banking through a single set-up. The move pushes the parent of Policybazaar and Paisabazaar beyond distributing financial products and deeper into the plumbing of digital payments.
For the group, that matters because payment aggregation offers both cost control and a fresh line of business. Fortune India and The Times of India reported when the Reserve Bank of India authorised PB Pay that the licence would let PB Fintech handle more of its own payment flows, reduce dependence on outside gateways and potentially offer payment services to external merchants as a separate business. In practical terms, a payment aggregator lets a merchant accept several digital payment methods without striking separate arrangements with each bank.
PB Fintech has presented its insurance heritage as a key reason it believes it can compete. In a statement carried by PTI and published by Rediff, the company said: “Insurance premiums recur for years, mandates cannot be allowed to fail silently, and every transaction moves under close regulatory watch.” It said that background had shaped PB Pay’s focus on recurring payments, operational reliability and compliance, capabilities it is now trying to sell to merchants beyond its own platforms.
The September launch follows a regulatory process that different publications described in slightly different ways. Fortune India said the certificate of authorisation, issued under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, became effective on 6 February 2026 after PB Pay was incorporated in early 2024 and received an in-principle nod in April 2025. The Times of India said PB Fintech’s board approved the subsidiary in March 2024 and traced the process back to early 2024, while Informist reported more narrowly that the company had applied for the licence in 2024. Across the reports, however, the central point is consistent: the February authorisation allowed PB Pay to begin payment-aggregator activity immediately.
The corporate backdrop has been just as important as the regulatory one. ETtech reported that PB Fintech dropped plans for a qualified institutional placement that had been floated to investors as a way to explore acquisitions overseas after a 5 February board meeting was cancelled. According to the publication, the shares stood at Rs 1,539 on 2 February, fell about 10 per cent to Rs 1,434 on 5 February, and then recovered to Rs 1,572 when news of the cancellation emerged. Informist, reporting on 6 February, said the stock still closed that day at Rs 1,504.90 on the National Stock Exchange, down more than 3 per cent.
Those market moves came alongside a sharp rise in profitability. ETtech said PB Fintech’s net profit for the December quarter climbed to Rs 189 crore from Rs 71.5 crore a year earlier, while operating revenue rose 37 per cent to Rs 1,771 crore from Rs 1,291.6 crore. Informist reported the same results in rupee billions. A few months later, Sahi Markets said PB Fintech approved an equity infusion of up to Rs 20 crore into PB Pay to help meet capital adequacy and net-worth rules, a reminder that entry into India’s regulated payments market still requires fresh funding even for a listed fintech whose earnings are improving.
PB Pay is also arriving in a crowded field. ETtech said the February licence put it in the same arena as Razorpay, Cashfree, Pine Labs and Paytm, while Fortune India added PhonePe to the list of established competitors. The Times of India described payment aggregation as a tightly regulated part of India’s fast-growing digital-payments market. Yet Sahi Markets said that, as of the September launch, PB Fintech had not disclosed merchant volumes, transaction value or launch clients, leaving unanswered questions about how quickly the business can scale outside the traffic generated by Policybazaar and Paisabazaar themselves.
For now, the significance of PB Pay’s debut lies less in the licence, which has been in hand since 6 February 2026, than in the fact that it is finally being used. After months as a newly authorised subsidiary, PB Pay is now open for merchant onboarding and live transaction processing. The next test will be whether PB Fintech can convert its promise of tighter control over recurring payments and lower gateway dependence into measurable volumes and margins, especially after opting for a targeted capital injection into PB Pay rather than the broader fund-raising plan it had considered earlier this year.
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