Mastercard Ban: US-based Mastercard will not be able to issue new debit or credit cards from today, 22 July as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed restrictions on the payment system operator. Last week, the RBI had indefinitely barred the company's cards for its failure to comply with data storage norms
Mastercard is a Payment System Operator authorized to operate a Card Network in the country under the PSS Act.
After American Express Banking Corp and Diners Club International, Mastercard is the third company to have been barred by RBI from acquiring new customers over data storage issues.
Mastercard has advised all card-issuing banks and non-banks to conform to the RBI's directions. The supervisory action has been taken in the exercise of powers vested in RBI under Section 17 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSS Act).
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The RBI said in a statement, "The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed restrictions on Mastercard Asia/Pacific Pte. Ltd. (Mastercard) from on-boarding new domestic customers (debit, credit or prepaid) onto its card network from July 22, 2021."
However, RBI also clarified "this order will not impact existing customers of Mastercard". So, the customers can use all the services on their Mastercard debit and credit cards and also prepaid cards without any changes.
Meanwhile, RBL Bank has tied up with Visa to issue credit cards enabled on the Visa payment network around the globe. RBL Bank currently issues credit cards on the Mastercard network only.
Following the order, RBL Bank had said in a regulatory filing, “We await further information from Mastercard on RBI’s supervisory action."
Several private-sector lenders like HDFC Bank, Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, RBL Bank have tie-ups Mastercard for debit and credit cards. However, from today onwards no banks will be able to issue new cards on the Mastercard network anymore.
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