RBI restricts Mastercard from onboarding new domestic customers

The Reserve Bank of India RBI on Wednesday imposed restrictions on Mastercard from on-boarding new domestic customers including debit, credit or prepaid onto its card network from July 22, 2021. 

The company has been found to be non-compliant with the directions on Storage of Payment System Data.

However, these curbs will not impact existing customers of Mastercard.

"Notwithstanding lapse of considerable time and adequate opportunities being given, the entity has been found to be non-compliant with the directions on Storage of Payment System Data," RBI said in a press release.

Mastercard has to advise, according to the order, all card issuing banks and non-banks to conform to these directions. The supervisory action has been taken in exercise of powers vested in RBI under Section 17 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSS Act).

The RBI regulations mandate all system providers to ensure entire data (full end-to-end transaction details / information collected / carried / processed as part of the message / payment instruction) relating to payment systems operated by them is stored in a system only in India. 

They were also required to report compliance to RBI and submit a Board-approved System Audit Report conducted by a CERT-In empanelled auditor within the timelines specified therein.