Restrictions on Mastercard lifted: RBI allows to add new customers

BENGALURU: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday lifted the restrictions it had imposed on MasterCard in July last year. Now, new customers can be added by MasterCard Asia / Pacific Pte. The Central Bank had barred MasterCard Asia / Pacific Pte from onboarding new domestic customers - debit, credit or prepaid card networks, citing non-compliance with the payment system data storage.

In its April 2018 circular, RBI said that all system providers should ensure that all data related to the payment systems they operate is stored on a single system only in India. "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 foreign country, if required," the central bank said.

MasterCard failed to comply with RBI standards, preventing the leading card issuer from adding new domestic card customers. Last year, the central bank banned American Express and Diners Club from adding new customers in addition to MasterCard, the New Indian Express reported.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank on Thursday announced an increase in the limit of e-mandates on cards for recurring payments from Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 with immediate effect.

"On a review of the implementation of the e-mandate framework and the protection available to customers, it has been decided to increase the aforesaid AFA (Additional factor of authentication) limit from Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 per transaction," the RBI said in a statement.