RBI bans American Express Diners Club from on boarding new customers from 1 May onwards

The Reserve Bank has restricted American Express Banking Corp and Diners Club International Ltd from on-boarding new domestic customers onto their card networks from May 1 for violating data storage norms.

The order will not impact the existing customers of these two entities, the central bank said in a statement on Friday.

American Express Banking Corp and Diners Club International Ltd are Payment System Operators authorised to operate card networks in the country under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSS Act).

The RBI has imposed the restrictions on American Express Banking Corp and Diners Club International by an order dated April 23, 2021.

"These entities have been found non-compliant with the directions on Storage of Payment System Data," the RBI said.

The supervisory action, it added, has been taken in exercise of powers vested in RBI under the PSS Act.

In April 2018, all payment system providers were directed to ensure that within a period of six months the entire data (full end-to-end transaction details / information collected / carried / processed as part of the message / payment instruction) relating to payment systems operated by them is stored in a system only in India.

They were also required to report compliance to RBI and submit a board-approved System Audit Report (SAR) conducted by a CERT-In empanelled auditor within the timelines specified.

At the end of February 2021, Amex had 15.6 lakh credit cards outstanding, representing 2.53% of the total market. Diners Club cards are issued in India exclusively through HDFC Bank. The number of active cards issued by Diners Club was not immediately available.

The April 2018 circular had caused much heartburn among US-based payment players in India because of the six-month compliance timeframe and the absence of a clause allowing data mirroring.