New Delhi, Aug. 1 -- Starting August 1, private sector lender ICICI Bank will start charging payment aggregators (PAs) a fee for handling Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions that these PAs facilitate on merchant platforms, reported Business Standard.

For the unversed, PAs act as intermediaries between banks and merchants as they simplify the payment process by pooling funds and settling them with the merchant. These include Google Pay, PhonePe, Mobikwik and Razorpay, among others.

The bank has reportedly sent letters to payment aggregators intimating them of this decision. Quoting a source familiar with the development, BS reported that the bank will charge PAs that maintain an escrow account with the bank 2 basis points (bps)...