India’s central bank has barred Mastercard indefinitely from issuing new bank cards to domestic customers

The Reserve Bank of India has accused Mastercard of violating data storage laws within the nation.

India’s Reserve Bank stated that Mastercard had not complied with rules requiring foreign card networks to store data on Indian payments exclusively in India.

There has been no response from the Mastercard

Under new rules, Mastercard will be prohibited from issuing debit, credit, or prepaid cards to customers in India from 22 July.

The Reserve Bank’s decision will not have any impact on Mastercard’s existing customers, who are those that use a Mastercard branded banking card.

The central bank said the payments service provider had violated a 2018 order directing payments data to be stored in India. This would allow the regulator “unfettered supervisory access” to payment details.

Last year, Mastercard accounted for 33% of all card payments in India.