Reserve Bank of India bans Mastercard from issuing cards

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Reserve Bank of India bans Mastercard from issuing cards

By Will McCurdy

15/07/2021

Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India's central bank, has banned Mastercard from issuing debit or credit cards to domestic customers.

The indefinite ban will take effect from July 22 but will not impact existing users.

The central bank claimed Mastercard violated the India’s data storage laws, which require foreign card networks to store their payment data on servers located in India.

In April, RBI stopped American Express from onboarding new customers on account of the same legislation.

Visa, Mastercard and American Express have previously all lobbied for India to relax the legislation, which was introduced in 2018.

"Notwithstanding (the) lapse of considerable time and adequate opportunities being given, the entity (Mastercard) has been found to be non-compliant with the directions of Storage Payment System Data," said an RBI spokesperson.

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