RBI bars American Express, Diners from adding new customers for not following data storage rules

The RBI has barred American Express and Diners Club from adding new customers from May 1 as they failed to comply with its directions on customers' data storage. The order will not affect existing customers.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday barred global card networking giants American Express Banking Corp and Diners Club International Ltd from adding new customers in India from May 1. This was after they failed to comply with RBI's directions on customers' data safety and storage. In an order, the RBI said American Express and Diners Club have been barred from "on-boarding new domestic customers onto their card networks". The RBI cracked the whip in form of supervisory action after the two entities were found not complying with directions on storage of payment system data. In other words, they did not follow the RBI's directions on ensuring data of transactions, payments, instructions and customer information collected by them is stored in a system within India.