RBI lifts business restrictions on Mastercard, allows it to onboard new customers

The Reserve Bank of Indian (RBI) on Thursday lifted the restrictions imposed last year on Mastercard and allowed the global payment processor to onboard new customers for debit, credit or prepaid cards in India, after satisfactory compliance with data storage norms. 

"Reserve Bank of India lifts the business restrictions imposed on Mastercard Asia / Pacific Pte. Ltd," the RBI said in a statement on Thursday.  

On July 14, 2021, the RBI had imposed restrictions on Mastercard Asia /Pacific Pte. Ltd. from on-boarding new domestic customers (debit, credit or prepaid) onto its card network from July 22, 2021. The Central bank racked the whip after it found Mastercard Asia wanting for non-compliance with the RBI circular dated April 6, 2018 on Storage of Payment System Data. 

"In view of the satisfactory compliance demonstrated by Mastercard Asia / Pacific Pte. Ltd. with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular dated April 6, 2018 on Storage of Payment System Data, the restrictions imposed, vide order dated July 14, 2021, on on-boarding of new domestic customers have been lifted with immediate effect," it said.  

Mastercard is a Payment System Operator authorised to operate a card network in the country under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSS Act). 

"We welcome and are grateful for today's decision by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), enabling us to resume onboarding of new domestic customers (debit, credit and prepaid) onto our card network in the country, with immediate effect. As we have in our engagement with the RBI, we reaffirm our commitment to support the digital needs of India, its people and its businesses," news agency PTI quoted Mastercard making this statement in response to RBI's latest order.