RBI restricts American Express, Diners Club from on-boarding new customers from May 1

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.

Meanwhile, American Express said it has been in regular dialogue with the RBI regarding data localisation requirements and has demonstrated its progress towards complying with the regulations.

"While we're disappointed that the RBI has taken this course of action, we are working with them to resolve their concerns as quickly as possible. This does not impact the services that we offer to our existing customers in India, and our customers can continue to use and accept our cards as normal," the company said.