RBI lifts restrictions on Diners Club, allows onboarding of fresh customers

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday lifted its restrictions on credit card issuer Diners Club International, allowing it to onboard fresh customers, in view of the satisfactory compliance of RBI norms on local data storage as stipulated by the central bank.

RBI had barred Diners Club from onboarding fresh customers from May 1, through an order on April 23, and said the restrictions would remain in place till the card issuer met RBI norms on local data storage.

On April 23, 2021, the central bank had barred Diners Club and American Express together from onboarding fresh customers. Subsequently, it also barred Mastercard from on-boarding new customers from July 22 for non-compliance with its local data storage norms.

The RBI’s ban on American Express and Mastercard continues.

There is no separate data available for how many cards Diners Club has in India, but it works through a collaboration model. In India, its primary partner is HDFC Bank.

At the end of February, American Express had credit cards outstanding of 1.56 million and was the seventh-largest credit card issuer in the country. Its cards were used for transactions worth Rs 2,325 crore, according to the RBI data.

Mastercard is the second largest credit card issuer in the country.

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