The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday restricted  Mastercard Inc from acquiring new customers starting July 22. The payments operator has been barred from adding domestic customers cross three categories of cards – debit, credit as well as prepaid. The action by the RBI has been prompted by Mastercard’s failure to be in compliance with Central Bank’s directions on data storage. RBI observed Mastercard had failed to comply with the rules despite the company having been given considerable time and several chances to do so. The central bank, however, clarified in a statement, the order will not impact existing Mastercard customers.

Informing about the supervisory action on Mastercard Asia/Pacific Pte. Ltd, RBI said, "Notwithstanding the 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 SystemData." RBI also instructed Mastercard to advise all card-issuing banks and non-banks to conform to the directions.  The RBI has been empowered to supervise data storage under Section 17 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSS Act). Mastercard shall advise all card-issuing banks and non-banks to conform to these directions, the RBI said.

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