The latest move is a part of RBI's localisation mandate for payments data that came into effect in 2018 and requires that such data be mandatorily stored in India. The Reserve Bank of India in a statement today said that it has barred Mastercard from onboarding new domestic customers in India onto its card network - debit, credit, or prepaid cards - with effect from July 22. The statement, however, notes that existing Mastercard users will not be impacted by the restrictions. Earlier this year, the RBI had barred American Express and Diners Club from onboarding new customers due to non-compliance with its data localisation guidelines. In December 2019, the RBI imposed sanctions on HDFC Bank and barred the bank from onboarding any new credit card customers. Mastercard along with payments network Visa dominate global cards payment and, in India, the credit cards market. In April 2018, a circular was issued by the RBI to payments systems and scheduled commercial banks directing them to Store their entire data relating to payment systems operated by them in a system only in India. Report compliance of the same to the RBI in six months Submit a System Audit Report (SAR) done by a CERT-in empanelled auditor to the RBI by December 2018. "This data should include the full end-to-end transaction details / information collected / carried / processed as part of the message / payment instruction. For the foreign leg of the transaction, if any, the data can also be stored in the…
