Mastercard can’t issue new cards from July 22: RBI

Source: TOI

What is the News?

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has barred Mastercard from issuing new domestic cards over violation of RBI’s directions on storage of payment system data.

Rules regarding Storage of Payment System Data:

• The Reserve Bank of India has issued a directive in 2018 on ‘Storage of Payment System Data’.
• It had advised all system providers to ensure that within a period of six months, the entire data relating to payment systems operated by them is stored in a system only in India.
• Moreover, all system providers were also required to report compliance to RBI and submit a board-approved system audit report conducted by a CERT-In impaneled auditor within the specified timelines.
• These directions were applicable to all Payment System providers authorised/approved by the RBI to set up and operate a payment system in India under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
• However, the local storage norms do not apply to those payments where one leg of the transaction is offshore.
• Further, the RBI norms also allow data to be sent abroad for processing, but the same must be deleted from overseas servers by the end of the day.