Eight months after barring the country's largest private sector lender HDFC Bank from selling new credit cards, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted the ban, banking sources said. However, the ban on launching new technology initiatives remains, the sources said.

 In December last year, the RBI had come out with an unprecedented action implementing both the bans, after repeated instances of technological outages at the lender, which is the market leader in the credit cards segment. Rivals ICICI Bank and SBI Cards seized the opportunity to narrow the gap with HDFC Bank. "A communication has been received by HDFC Bank regarding the lifting of the ban on credit cards on Tuesday," one of the sources, who declined to be identified, said.

The bank's existing users were not impacted by the ban and it had 1.48 crore credit card customers as of June. On July 17, the bank's Chief Executive and Managing Director Sashidhar Jagdishan had said it has complied with 85 per cent of the RBI's requirements on the improvements desired, and the ball is now in the regulator's court to re-allow the bank.

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