RBI bars Mastercard from issuing any new cards in India
The RBI banned Mastercard from onboarding new domestic customers from 22 July 2021 over data-localisation non-compliance. Existing cards keep working; new issuance stops cold.
The RBI has barred Mastercard from issuing any new debit, credit or prepaid cards in India, effective 22 July 2021. The reason: non-compliance with India’s data-localisation rules. The scope: total. Existing Mastercard holders are unaffected, but the network’s growth in India freezes overnight.
The collateral damage lands on the issuers. HDFC, Axis, RBL and others built meaningful chunks of their portfolios on Mastercard rails, and they now have to scramble onto Visa and RuPay for every new card they want to sell.
For points-and-miles people, note who’s holding Mastercard plastic today: plenty of Axis Magnus and Atlas cardholders, among others. Their cards keep working — this isn’t a devaluation of anything in your wallet. It’s a devaluation of the network’s Indian future.
Our take: the RBI has now shown it will switch off a global payments network to enforce data rules. Issuers will diversify networks permanently after this — and applicants should stop assuming the card they want will exist on the network they saw reviewed.