NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday lifted restrictions on Mastercard Asia and allowed it to add new customers to its network.
In an order on July 14, 2021, the central bank had imposed restrictions on Mastercard Asia / Pacific Pte from on-boarding new domestic customers (debit, credit or prepaid) onto its card network for non-compliance with RBI’s norms on storage of payment system data.
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).
Under the Act, RBI had directed all system operators in India to ensure that entire data relating to payment systems operated by them is stored in India. The platforms were given six months to adhere to these norms.
The directive was issued by the Reserve Bank on April 6, 2018. 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 specified timelines.