Amazon Pay’s India branch was fined more than $373,300 by India’s central bank for failing to follow local rules pertaining to know your customer and prepaid payment instrument requirements.
Amazon Pay (India) was found to be in violation of some rules of the Reserve Bank of India’s guidelines on prepaid payment instruments (needed by a business to operate as a digital wallet) and know your customer criteria, however the central bank did not specify which rules were broken.
Thus, a notification was sent to the organisation asking it to provide justification as to why a fine for failing to follow the instructions shouldn’t be applied. The RBI said in a statement that, after taking into account the entity’s response, it had come to the conclusion that the aforementioned charge of failing to follow its instructions was true and called for the imposition of a financial penalty.
The fine comes as the Indian central bank tightens its compliance standards for local Big Tech and fintech companies as it combats money laundering and exploitative business practises. Amazon has invested more than $7 billion in India over the past ten years and views it as a crucial market.
“Although we innovate on behalf of our clients to provide them with a safe and convenient payments experience, we remain profoundly committed to operating in accordance with regulatory requirements and maintaining a high compliance bar. To communicate our commitment to the authorities, we continue to engage closely with them, an Amazon spokeswoman said in a statement.
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