Reserve Bank of India's ban on Mastercard - 7 things you should know

Indian's banking regulator and global payments services giant Mastercard have been at odds for a while over the issue of data storage rules. The long-standing dispute reaching a tipping point with the Reserve Bank of India banning Mastercard from issuing new credits, debits or prepaid cards to customers from next week.

The news comes as a major blow to the payments company which had earlier been bullish about its plan in India in the coming years. Here’s 7 things about India’s ban on Mastercard that you should know:

1. The ban on Mastercard issuing new cards or adding new customers will be enforced from July 22 and is an indefinite one.
2. As per India’s central bank, the ban is due to non-compliance by Mastercard with directions given by it in an April 2018 circular to store all payments data exclusively in India.
3. While RBI seeks "unfettered supervisory access" into transaction details, payments companies Mastercard, Visa and American Express haven’t taken well to the data localisation ask.
4. Mastercard ban is the third such incident in less than 3 months after RBI issued similar bans on American Express and Diners Club International for similar violations.
5. Mastercard has many Indian banks as partners issuing credit and debit cards powered by its platform to their customers.
6. The move is a major setback for Mastercard, which had earmarked $1 billion for investment in India over the next 5 years in 2019.
7. As per the RBI, existing customers of Mastercard will not be affected by the ban.