RBI lifts curbs, allows Diners Club to onboard customers

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday lifted restrictions on Diners Club International and allowed it to onboard new domestic customers.

The restrictions have been lifted with immediate effect, the central bank said in a statement. The RBI had, on April 23, 2021, imposed restrictions on Diners Club International Ltd from onboarding new domestic customers onto its card network from May 1, 2021 for non-compliance with the norms on Storage of Payment System Data.

“In view of the satisfactory compliance demonstrated by Diners Club International with the RBI circular on Storage of Payment System Data, the restrictions imposed, vide order dated April 23, 2021, on on-boarding of fresh domestic customers have been lifted with immediate effect,” the RBI said.

Along with Diners, the RBI had barred another US-based payment system operator American Express. In July 2021, RBI also restricted Mastercard for non-compliance with its local data storage norms.

However, the RBI has not yet lifted ban on American Express and Mastercard.

In April 2018, the RBI had directed all system providers to ensure that within six months the entire data (full end-to-end transaction details, information collected and processed as part of the message and 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 the RBI and submit a Board-approved System Audit Report conducted by a CERT-In empanelled auditor within the timelines specified therein.