The Central Bank of India has banned Mastercard from issuing new debit or credit cards to local customers indefinitely, according to the BBC. The Reserve Bank of India has accused the company of violating storage laws.
The bank said that Mastercard does not follow the rules that require foreign card networks to store data on Indian payments in India.
From July 22, Mastercard will be prohibited from issuing debit, credit or prepaid cards to customers in India. The bank’s decision will not affect existing Mastercard customers.
The central bank said that the payment service provider violated the procedure for storing payment data in India from 2018. This will give the regulator “unrestricted supervisory access” to payment data.
According to London-based payment startup PPRO, quoted by AFP, Mastercard accounted for 33% of all card payments in India last year. In 2019, the company announced a billion-dollar investment over the next five years as part of its plans to expand in the Asian country.