RBI Ban on Credit Card Issuers – American Express, HDFC & Diners Club

By | November 9, 2021
RBI Ban on credit card companies - American Express, HDFC & Diners Club

Disclaimer: Everything expressed below are only my own personal views and opinions reg. the latest news from RBI. It may or may not be factually correct.

RBI is on full swing lately and have banned multiple credit card issuers from acquiring new credit card customers. Here’s everything you need to know about them.

American Express

  • The Ban: Can’t acquire new customers from 1st May 2021.
  • The Reason: Payments data are not stored locally.

RBI in the past has passed the circular dated April 6, 2018 on Storage of Payment System Data advising all payment system providers (“PSPs”) to ensure that data, relating to payment systems operated by them (“Payments Data”), is stored in India.

It seems Amex has crossed the deadline and so is the ban. I’m sure American Express is not a company that ignores “regulations” but I’m shocked to see this. I wonder what Amex was doing for 2 years!!

Apart from regulation, it will also help customers, as transactions on Amex network is now calculated on EST time-zone which doesn’t help those doing last minute transactions on few cards to avail the monthly bonus.

When will the ban be lifted?

Depends on how good Amex is prepared to handle this. 

If they have already made things ready and are in final phase (hoping so), maybe Amex would submit the necessary documents ahead of 1st May 2021 or may take about a month max to get it sorted.

If not, forget about the lift of ban for next ~6 months. But I doubt about longer delays, as American Express India does only Cards business primarily and this ban would affect the life of thousands of Amex Employee’s – especially those in sales – the already stressed segment due to the pandemic.

Side note: Maybe this is somewhere related to the recent update with Amex and CIBIL reports. So maybe they’re already on it, to an extent?

HDFC Bank

  • The Ban: Can’t acquire new customers from 2nd Dec 2020.
  • The Reason: Frequent Outages with HDFC Internet/mobile banking, etc
  • Ban lifted

Its been about 4 months since the ban has been placed on HDFC from issuing new cards. I’m surprised to see that the ban is still not lifted on India’s #1 bank – as they call so.

When will the ban be lifted?

As per the details I got from guys handling servers: I’m expecting it to happen in ~6 months timeframe as that’s the time taken to transfer the data to the new infrastructure, then report it and get a green signal from RBI.

We’re getting closer to that 6 months now and as of mid April 2021, it seems a third party Audit is happening on the upgraded infrastructure and is in the final stage now. So we will have to wait and see.

Diners Club

  • The Ban: Can’t acquire new customers from 1st May 2021.
  • The Reason: Payments data are not stored locally.
  • Ban lifted on 9th Nov 2021

This is same as the Amex issue seen above, but I wonder how it matters, as anyway HDFC – the network partner for Diners Club is having the payments data of Diners cards with them locally in India.

Maybe RBI want Diners to process these Diners payments from India. If so, I don’t think this is going to happen anytime soon. But I maybe wrong too, as I’m not sure of the development with Diners Club.

The Fun Fact: India has just banned the company that invented the concept of credit cards. That’s right. Diners Club International, founded in 1950 was the first independent credit card company in the world to issue credit cards.

All types of Miracles happen in India! Its good to see RBI showing the power of India. But at the same time wish they also improve the domestic payment systems like Rupay.

Customer Impact

  1. New Customers: Its a bad news for those who’re new to Amex & HDFC, as they have one of the amazing credit card products in the country.
  2. Existing Customers: It’s a normal day for existing customers and are allowed to upgrade/downgrade cards as they wish, within the issuer.

Apart from above, existing customers may enjoy lucrative offers from HDFC & Amex to avoid customers moving out and to geenrate more revenue.

We’ve seen this already with HDFC and it would be interesting to see from Amex too now. Expect some mind-blowing merchant/targeted offers from American Express if the ban goes live from 1st May 2021.

Where will new customers go?

With the ban on HDFC & Amex from Issuing new cards, where will the new cardholders go?

The mass market segment would move to SBICards, ICICI & others. That applies well for HDFC.

But those in premium segment and those who’re knowledgable would go for other premium issuers like Axis, SC and even Citi as they’re still active in card issuance.

I personally feel its an amazing opportunity for Axis Bank. Hope Axis strikes while the iron is hot. But I wish Axis speeds up the onboarding process.

Why RBI is rough?

I wonder why RBI is taking such huge decisions in short notice. I mean, I wish a circular like placing a ban on primary revenue source of a business is better sent a “month” in advance.

But actions like these might force good foreign companies too to move out of the country – just like how Citi exit India recently. While Citi says it’s more of a business decision, some do say that one of the reason is: regulations in India are not favourable for Citi with current setup.

So what’s the reason for all these rough decisions by RBI in payments industry? That too why especially on credit card issuers? Maybe all of them to favour SBICard? or is it mere coincidence? We never know!

Also, I think its essential for RBI to take such steps, maybe because the banking industry has had enough scam’s in the past and maybe RBI is pro-active now to control that.

Looking at the trend, I wish Visa & Mastercard are not in the queue to be banned next. Let’s hope they obey the rules!

Final Thoughts

In a nutshell, RBI has put a ban on two of the best credit card companies in the country – the only two issuers serving premium customers pretty well, excluding Citi as they’re leaving India anyway.

While Covid-19 is giving shocks to humans every other day, RBI is giving equal shocks to credit card companies every now and then.

RBI is hopefully doing the right thing for India as a whole, but I think it could be done better, smoother and in a more friendly way.

Like, they could instead put a penalty on these companies and use those funds to speed up the Covid-19 Vaccination drive, among many other things to build a better India.

Let’s hope the pandemic settle down at the earliest and hope both American Express & HDFC get’s back in game soon and shine bright like a diamond.

108 thoughts on “RBI Ban on Credit Card Issuers – American Express, HDFC & Diners Club

  1. Kamal

    Amex already gives excellent offers like recent 100% CB on 200rs in dine , eat and more campaign . As you have rightly pointed , if the ban goes live, i hope they will increase offers for existing Amex members.
    Secondly hdfc diners ban will affect thousands like me who want to upgrade their regalia to Diners club black based on their updated salary (this is appraisal season ) . I really wish diners get this sorted ASAP as we upcoming card enthusiasts want to dive into DCB ecosystem.
    As always, excellent article anna . Kudos 👏

    Reply
    1. Kamal

      Well I received my Amex this year and Dine , eat and more campaign was the first major offer to me from Amex.
      I live in one of the top coastal metros and when I hunted shops , out of 7 shops 5 happily accepted amex cards.
      I chose chains , popular local super markets, customer experience stores by big brands and found almost no issues.
      It’s more of filtering using amex’s locator and approaching them with no shame to be honest.

      Looking forward to more such offers from Amex.

      Reply
    2. CA VIVEK KAUSHIK

      Amex has elevated ceiling limit from 1000 to 1500 in order to get Membership Bonus Reward points of 1000. This is a sharp hike of 50% and disappointing. Top of above, they now stopped rewarding on making payment of utility bills on Paytm. In nutshell, they have started curtailing benefits from all corners.

      Reply
  2. Neo

    What’s wrong with RBI? They’re leaving no stones unturned to ruin Indian credit card market. As if HDFC ban and Citi exit was not enough to worry credit card users. Only God knows what they are upto. With moves like this we will be left with no other option but the “SARKARI” SBI Card.

    Reply
    1. Shubhanshu Sharma

      RBI gave them 2 years to complete this thing. Amex & DC

      Reply
      1. Ankur M

        If this comes out true, at least Acceptance in India will be very good. :p

        Reply
    2. Shivi

      More like RBI asserting “Who’s your daddy” than “who’s the boss”.

      With no data protection or personal accountability laws to govern any data breach in India, I was happier with data servers in America/Europe than in India.

      All good things have to come to an end……..

      Reply
      1. Sri

        I agree. More so with data residing in Europe (with GDPR ) not USA

        Reply
    3. Santosh Kumar

      In my opinon, SBI Card is not as Sarkari as you think. For the one and only one reason Better customer care for lower/mid-level cards like Simply Save etc compared to HDFC/Axis. Eg. Regalia, Regalia first, My zone etc.

      Reply
      1. Ashish

        Actually SBI Card is not sarkari at all. It just has SBI branding, whole card business is managed by GE Capital through a joint venture company.

        Reply
  3. Karthik N

    As always, Thanks for the info sid ! 6 months Ban by regulator on any business is a big deal. I have recently applied for an amex card to get a taste of its service. Now I gotta see if that gets processed within the month 🙂

    Reply
    1. Santosh Kumar

      If you are from a Tier I city, things actually move quite fast 🙂

      Reply
  4. Shubhanshu Sharma

    My Amex MRCC was just approved 2 days ago. I guess just in time 😀

    Reply
  5. Kumar

    I am not surprised if Amex takes the full 6 months time to adhere with RBI enforced compliance. Very recently when I did a early morning transaction 1st day of the month on my MRCC card, it was not considered for one of the 4 eligible transactions for the monthly bonus 1000 points. When contacted their CC, they had the audacity to say that their processing happens in EST timezone and asked me to do any transactions after 9 AM on 1st day of the month for them to be considered. Thumbs up for RBI on vocal for local !

    Reply
    1. Kamal

      I faced this exactly for this month April 2021 when I transacted on Apr 1 2am and got April fooled when reached out to customer care . They asked me to wait till May 1 and approach them . I haven’t yet swiped another 1.5k*4 just believing them.

      Has anyone else faced this ? Will amex give 1k points ?

      Reply
      1. Sukant

        Yes they will give the points but after end of the month. I did the transaction at around 1am and it was not considered. After calling the customer care I was told that this time it will be considered but do not do any transactions on 1st

        Reply
  6. daredevil

    You feel for HDFC and Amex cause you earn from them, RBI had given 2 years notice, why shall they wait?
    HDFC sunk itself, why play so much with digital systems, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Cause India’s largest private bank tried to cut infra costs, so badly as their net banking was once unavailable for days!!
    That is denial of service, you have money but you can’t use it, that’s a crime!!

    Reply
  7. Mihir

    Shouldn’t the CC companies be blamed instead of the RBI which is merely doing its job?
    The HDFC system issues are for all to see and Citi’s decision to exit is purely a restructuring of their global business.
    For Amex & DCB I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the RBI to take some action if it’s directive has not been adhered to that too for 2+ years. The onus is now on the CC companies to sort out their priorities.
    PS Just my opinion

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Everyone can be blamed. But the point is, why harsh decisions? Maybe we don’t know the bigger picture.

      Reply
  8. Shilpa

    I find it hilarious to defend Diners and Amex at this. They had whole 2 years to comply with the directive. They were warned. HDFC ban was also a warning. If they though that they’d be above the law, it’s their fault.

    The ban on HDFC, Amex and Diners is entirely justified. They became GDPR compliant on comparatively short notice, but aren’t bothered about Indian citizens privacy?

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      The concept of Privacy is over-rated and is not a worthy reason for such a move is what I feel.

      Reply
      1. Ankur M

        Are you sure Sid, Privacy is over rated?
        This move has been done so that these foreign entities should start taking Indian central bank seriously and not for granted like they have done so far.

        They were given pretty much time to ensure the compliance, 2 years seems to be more than sufficient to comply the local data storage.

        AMEX, DCB will never quit, India is the most emerging market with so much millennials, HNIs to target.

        Reply
        1. Siddharth Post author

          Meaning, anyway Amex Global has the data of Amex India na?
          Then how Privacy is coming into picture?

          Anyway, I don’t think these rules are for securing citizen’s privacy. Its to make sure RBI has the data locally, so they could see what they want to see. Maybe they are trying to control the scam’s in the banking industry.

          Reply
          1. Shivi

            RBI’s scam control is questionable looking at the disaster of Yes Bank, PMC and a number of co-operative banks recently. It’s more like a knee-jerk reaction/waking up to the news rather than any proactive measure.

          2. Sri

            I agree that this is not related to privacy of individuals’ data ( as is the case with GDPR). In this case, it is about how the Govt. can access and control the data when need arises..could be to deal with scams, IT offenders or anything else

      2. Shilpa

        It is not exactly, there are two sides of this coin. What, where and how much people are buying is a huge data mine (see CRED). It can be used to influence the buyers on products, services and even swaying the vote.

        Look at Trump vs Hillary, since the data of FB preferences was available to Russians who used it to sway the neutrals towards Trump.

        Here is how American Express quickly complied with GDPR and was fawning over the law : americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-insights/articles/what-the-new-european-general-data-protection-regulations-mean-for-your-business/

        It is because they knew that they’d be fined 4% of revenue or 20 million Euros (whichever is greater). They didn’t pay the same attention to RBI, and shot themselves in the foot.

        It is not like it sprung up all of a sudden, they should have taken a heed when HDFC bank was banned from Credit Cards but still had the arrogance of thinking they were over RBI. Now, they are reaping what they sowed.

        Being from IT industry, I know companies can achieve this in 6 months with right partner. AmEx is one of the top payers and it has the employee with calibre to easily achieve this within a year. Hell, even companies like HCL, Infosys, TCS (the low quality high volume firms) can do this change within 1.5 years.

        Reply
  9. Nitesh

    Why people are complaining about Adani and ambani every time, I don’t know, what is their mindset, you should also do business, isn’t it? Why you are servant, do business and grow like adani-ambani. Ambani gave you cheap internet, otherwise you was paying 250 for a GB.

    Reply
  10. Rajesh Sharma

    The sentence “All types of Miracles happen in India!” shows your typical attitude considering everything foreign good and everything Indian bad. You have forgetting the fact that even after giving enough time, the companies did not comply with with the RBI directions. It appears that they assumed that India still has “chalata hai” attitude. It is a shame if we support foreign companies even after they don’t want to work in a way we want.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Not my attitude, its the reality. Rupay is a good example.

      Not really supporting foreign companies, but hoping them to have smoother relationship with RBI. 🙂

      Reply
    2. chanduatla

      If everything relates to India always as sentimental, we cannot analysis the issue in detail and come with our ideas or expressions. Sid using the words “All types of Miracles happen in India” is nothing wrong.

      Reply
  11. RAGIB MD IQBAL

    It’s sad to see these bans on the best credit credit card companies. Hope that these bans end soon.

    But as far as existing HDFC CC holders are concerned, it was like DIWALI for them where approx everyone got LE or CC upgrade or both.

    After few months of lifting of the ban on HDFC, i will not be surprised if they come with new super premium cards above DCB & INFINIA with devaluation of most of the existing cards.

    Reply
  12. Kartik

    I’m planning to wait for some good credit card launch.
    Don’t have a single premium card right now.

    Reply
  13. Himanshu Chaturvedi

    Providing information is good but putting your own opinion on the news for your audience isn’t. It’s fine that you want smoother relationship of foreign entities with RBI, maybe because their services are good but that doesn’t give them right to not complying with regulations. They do business in Europe and they follow GDPR and all the EU laws. What’s the problem in complying with India’s regulation. It won’t affect their business if they simply comply with the law.

    Two years is a big time to follow anything and yet they didn’t. Hopefully they will in next 6 months as you are saying, but this move is entirely justified.

    About CITI, you mentioned that Indian policies were hurting their business. But, they have decided to close business in 13 other countries too. So it’s not only India, it’s purely a tactical move to focus on the money where it matters. I was in NatWest, when RBS closed its business in India, it was not because they were not successful. It was only because we were having huge operating income loss worldwide and we closed retail business in 25 countries altogether.

    India might be not very favourable in its policies, but not every time. And for a person like you, who is getting benefitted with rewards from Indian financial eco-system we can expect a little unbiased opinion.
    Can’t we?

    Reply
    1. Pankaj Malhotra

      I agree. Only Indians have been allowing themselves to be ruled by foreigners since centuries. Nobody else to blame.

      Reply
    2. Siddharth Post author

      It was unbiased in a way, but the gap is because I knew less of RBI actions and so the content felt to be biased towards issuers. Have added more details to balance that now. 🙂

      Citi – I still feel 13 other countries are not comparable with what India is capable of in near future. That too in credit cards segment.

      Reply
    3. Kamal

      Agree unequivocally with all your points except last one with due respect Himanshu sir.

      I believe Sid would have called the 1 week notice for 6 month ban as bit harsh for such ginormous entities even though they were given 2 years period.
      Even IT employees have to serve 3 months notice period before leaving.

      Otherwise I agree with vocal for local and amex should adhere to rbi regulations as its peers visa and MC

      Reply
  14. Amitabh Maheshwari

    Good ! Amex deserved it. The way they are making fools of Indian plat charge card holders and others too. Plat charge card in the US provides far better value and at a cheaper cost. That is the problem with us Indians. Amex needs to be forced to not shortchange their Indian customers. It serves these guys good.

    Reply
    1. Shivi

      This has nothing to do with what they offer in other countries.

      Reply
    2. Santosh Kumar

      Just to add here, Amex also doesn’t have the option to disable international transactions to reduce fraud and card skimming. PS: Amex customer care is first class and would promptly take up any such issues though. But pointing out another example of how it has not followed rules

      Reply
  15. Nishant

    This ban is a good opportunity for other banks to get benefitted. It seems Icici has issued 6.65L new credit card in last 6 months. Wondering apart from amazon pay credit card, which other card from icici is good.

    Reply
    1. Mayank

      I closed my amazon pay credit card. Earlier that card was good but now they have made many changes internally. I haven’t received many times 1% cashback for wallet reloads, any icici bank offer on flipkart and Paytm was earlier applicable on amazon pay card also, which they have stopped now.

      Reply
    2. varun

      None, unfortunately. Go for their Coral/Rubyx/Sapphiro only if you get them LTF.

      Reply
    3. Shilpa

      I think as long as ICICI has a payback based reward system, their cards compared to HDFC are not gonna be worth it. I remember around 7-8 years ago ICICI was the bomb. They offered the highest features and discounts (compared to others at the time). Then came along HDFC and blew them away. ICICI’s strategy in response was to keep everything same.

      I started working with a meager starting salary and my company then had a tie up with HDFC. At the time, I got a debit card with 1% cashback on all, lounge access, and unlimited ATM withdrawals (remember when withdrawing at non-your-own-bank ATM used to cost money? It was revolutionary at the time). 5 years down the line I switched to a company where I earn roughly 10x what I used to earn. This company has tie up with ICICI and I got “The One” account. It comes with basically unlimited free ATM withdrawals and that’s it . No new features. Nada. Some spending benefits like Amazon Prime and Zomato pro for first year but that’s it. After 3 months, they did offer me a Saphirro LTF but it is also basically been useless. Some benefits like loungs activate only post 5000 spend in previous quarter where you get a terrible return of whooping 1-1.5% (Based on Amex or non-Amex card used). Why’d I use that when I can get a roughly 10% back on Axis Vistara Infinite or 4% on BoB until I get the Infinia ?

      The only positive is ICICI downtime is almost zero.

      Reply
  16. Bhautik

    I think RBI has taken this decision in a view of a long vision towards Data Protection.
    If gov can restrict companies such as ByteDance due to a data storage issue why not American Express or Diners Club and I am sure their expert must be knowing these decisions might be taken towards them.
    By the way, I like the thought of imposing heavy ” penalty on these companies and use those funds to speed up the Covid-19 Vaccination drive “

    Reply
    1. Ashutosh

      My sense is that RBI ban and guidelines are more from objective of control and monitoring than data privacy.
      Problem is when data privacy is applied selectively and not irrespective of public, private, government. Nevertheless probably outside the realm of this forum. Cheers.

      Reply
  17. Aditya Agrawal

    Great balanced article as usual Siddharth! We live in a time when all most of us are polarized and so is our public discourse. Everything is either great or ugly. You are either a martyr or a traitor. Whereas most people and companies are somewhere in the middle.

    Somehow it has become fashionable to blame foreign companies and investors and come up with new rules / rulings which hurt their core of the business.

    For everybody here who believes all foreign companies are taking Indians for a ride, I would request them to stop using Google, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Apple and Samsung. Use a Micromax phone and PNB bank account and credit card and share the quality of digital experience on these forums.

    I know HDFC has had issues. But I can’t imagine lets say a Bank of India or Canara Bank’s net banking systems to be better than HDFC. And why stop credit cards if digital systems are not upto the mark. I fail to see the correlation. Why not a fine instead? You can’t help but think about bias and latent agendas.

    Reply
    1. Shilpa

      I don’t even understand how you got from people saying it is correct for Diners and Amex to be banned to don’t use Google, Whatsapp, Apple etc non sense. It is such a strawman.

      Nobody is blaming “foreign companies” here. You don’t see anyone saying ban VISA or Mastercard. You know why? Because the followed the rules. Amex and Diners decided not to. And they are facing consequences. A much stringent directive regarding data storage of customers was issued (GDPR) by “foreign” EU, which Amex and Diners had no issues following that. That means they have the know how to follow the directive but just did not want to do it.

      We often complaint that the fines are not proportional to income, and companies get away with little fines. For high revenue firms it just becomes the cost of doing business. A fine of Rs. 1000 has much different impact on a shop earning Rs. 5000 per month than a firm earning Rs. 500000. Fines are meant to be a deterrent rather than a minor expense. So, hitting them directly on their revenue is an actual deterrent than a fine of fixed xyz amount. This also makes them lose some of their market shares to rivals. I think RBI hit the nail on with the strategy of banning onboarding of new customers. Next time it’d make them think twice about not following the directive.

      I don’t even understand how this is an argument? A company has to follow the law of the land. Graphite India had to shut down its Bangalore unit because it did not meet the emission criteria set by Pollution Control Board. Should it also be allowed to open because it is unfair for its profit margin to follow the law?

      I don’t know how you assume Canara Bank and Bank of India also have frequent downtimes? I use BoB and PNB and never faced that issue with them. With HDFC, we all know the scenario. It is not rocket science to develop an infrastructure that can handle the traffic of the number of consumers, in fact, it is much easier for banks. You know the amount of customers you have. You can easily assume how many of them use Internet banking. You can easily find out max number of users that login concurrently. Just take 30% buffer of that, and voila you have your estimated traffic. Now provision the infrastructure for it. If you look at Bank of India or Canara Bank (the so called inferior banks in your eyes) IT Infrastructure Engineer job description you will find that they hire people with good experience with this stuff. It is much much easier to get into Infosys, HCL, Wipro, TCS etc than get in there. HDFC repeatedly failed to do so despite having a much larger revenue than others.

      Reply
      1. Aditya Agrawal

        Hi Shilpa

        Thought I will reply to your points:

        1. Well if you go through the entire forum, you will observe that there is a strong Indian vs foreign companies sentiment.

        2. Fair point about fines being a %age of your business. Nobody can disagree. But can you please explain how stopping new credit cards for a retail bank is the same as %age of revenues. I would also want the fine to be x% of the cos’s revenues.

        3. HDFC vs PSU banks: Quality of experience is not just about downtime. Through my family members, I have happened to use the digital facilities of many a PSU banks. A lot of times they dont work as intended, the user experience is shoddy to say the least.

        Reply
    2. Praveen

      Tell me one person on this forum who believes “all foreign companies are taking Indians for a ride” as you said – no one seems to have said it here except you. Stop polluting this forum.

      Reply
      1. Aditya Agrawal

        Well Praveen, may I request you to go through all the comments again? There is a strong Indian vs foreign undertone in many of the comments.

        Reply
        1. Praveen

          So why are you transposing that on all and generalising? There will always be different voices if you are in a country other than China, Saudi, Pak, etc.
          Everyone has the freedom to use “foreign” assets the way they please – Indians wanting to use a Chinese or Korean phone instead of an American phone to save money and invest/spend it elsewhere i.e. clothing, travel, whatever – individuals will create value for themselves the way they want. Similarly how American firms use Indian labour in offshoring so the firms can redeploy the savings elsewhere.

          Any arrogant or incompetent firm non-compliant with law will have to buckle up, what’s wrong in improving? Someone AmEx thought was inferior / less sophisticated to them proved to AmEx they were wrong?

          Reply
  18. Akanksha

    Seeing how the RBI’s press release is on the suspension of onboarding of new customers on the Amex network, would this imply that issuers like SBI card, ICICI and IndusInd will also have to cease sourcing for their products on Amex network?

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Very interesting qn. I don’t have a confirmed answer to it though.

      But ideally speaking, “Amex network cards” are not customers for “Amex” in a “direct” sense even though technically it might create a new customer profile for such cards on dispatch.

      So they might be allowed!

      Reply
      1. Akanksha

        The following extract from the RBI press release:
        “(full end-to-end transaction details / information collected / carried / processed as part of the message / payment instruction)”. First reading would indicate that this should apply to network cards also since this information is Issuer agnostic and deals specifically with the role of a network. Case in point is when Issuer is down and network takes a decision on the transaction request on behalf of the issuer. Though the wording of the release says “customers”, in which case your logic also holds. But then again, the cardholders of HDFC Diners Black are customers of HDFC Bank and not that of Diners so there is some confusion here indeed.
        Visa/Mastercard should be in the clear for now since there are reports in the public domain of their storing Indian data locally.

        Reply
  19. Aman

    Extremely unfortunate scenario for Diners Club, they were already reeling under ban on HDFC and then this happens.

    Reply
  20. MShah

    The best thing which HDFC/DCB can do right now is to allow conversion of 1 DCB point for 1 rupee statement credit(instead of 0.5/equivalent). That would go a really long way to keep the existing holders happy,specially when you can’t use it for travel.

    With this development I am worried why should I add up big spends on DCB or Amex! Just not worth the risk of accumulating these points!!!

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      “1 DCB point for 1 rupee statement credit” – Sorry to say that this is never going to happen.

      Reply
    2. manoj kumar singh

      It’s not even 0.50 as well. It will never happen in future as well. Let’s hope for 0.5 or 0.6 even if happens.

      Reply
  21. Swapnil

    RBI’s decision is in correct manner. We can’t use money due to down services of banks. Also I have found these issues are only at the time of due dates.

    Some banking companies are begging on the road to sell credit cards and sending court notices if no payment or late payment.
    I was getting 5 calls in a day from HDFC, vendors for credit card and personal loans.

    Again these banks are grabbing service charges for each service but customers are not getting those services on time

    HDFC collecting 500Rs fine if auto debit of CC bill fails and most interestingly even if you pay CC bill manually before due date.

    Reply
    1. Shivi

      What are you talking of? I have been paying HDFC bill manually before due date since the past 4 years without any extra charge and 4 years before that it was on auto debit which never failed (Imo, it fails only if you don’t have enough money in your linked savings account)

      Reply
  22. sabari

    my feeling is it right decision as internationally for all financial services the company pay tax to company where the data servers are physically located. it is a very late decision but still late is better than never.

    Reply
  23. Ashutosh

    Will it affect renewal for existing card holders ? I have upcoming renewal for both Diners and Amex in next 3-4 months.

    Reply
  24. Mohit

    Well deserved. 2 years is a long time to comply with the rules and regulations.

    I would urge the RBI to additionally fine these players as well. Fine + Ban should teach them to be compliant going forward.

    Dont worry about Citi or other players leaving. Nobody will be able to overlook India as a market. If not one, others will come.

    These banks have 100s of associates in offices just to comply with US and EU regulations. Here in India, they are taking the regulations for granted. We need not be beggars to be ruled by foreigners even 75 years after independence.

    This is not sentimental. Those who dont want to comply with local regulations shouldnt be allowed to carry out their business in the country. Simple as.

    Reply
  25. Pranab

    Seems like HDFC has done with ‘Extra Savings Days Sale’. They starts to advertise the 3 days sale at least 2-3 days in advance every month. But as on 27th April, there’s nothing yet.

    Reply
    1. Rohit

      @Pranab
      I doubt that would happen always even though its been happening from past few months. If that was the case then why even to make it 3x and 5x. It could have been 6x and 10x always.

      Reply
  26. Rohit

    Is it bad news for DCB holders ? Considering ban for new customers will hdfc not allow people from Migrating from DCB to infinia ?

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      It maybe a problem for those conversions “to Diners cards” and not “from Diners cards”

      Reply
  27. Shawn

    Does anyone know if the RBI ban will impact any upgrade offers previously offered by AMEX (e.g. offer to upgrade membership rewards card to platinum travel card)

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Amex Sales/support don’t have any clarity on this yet. Will have to wait and see.

      Reply
  28. ARNAB CHAUDHURI

    Apparently I saw an article on mint today that hdfc is outsourcing its credit card business to zeta and sprinklr- two fintech companies.
    ***

    Reply
  29. Nick

    Any amex credit card application which was not approved till 27th April will be rejected automatically. This includes all new applications and applications for upgrade/downgrade.

    Reply
  30. Ajai Singh

    Had received my AMEX Platinum on 27th April but my request for an add on for my wife was rejected today no reason given “Have requested for the same again today”. PP has still not reached and I am waiting for the the same.

    While the Platinum card is great I already had issues with its plastic back which has started to peel a bit because I was shoving it inside the Ridge wallet. Thankfully I can request an replacement card without any issue.

    Reply
  31. RAGIB

    After HDFC, Diners Club & American Express, now RBI has banned Mastercard also.

    Reply
  32. Mugunthan

    FROM TOI:

    Mastercard can’t issue new cards from July 22: RBI

    Flexing its muscles on the issue of data localisation, the Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday barred Mastercard from onboarding any new domestic customer from July 22.

    The directive bars the US-based network from issuing either prepaid, credit or debit cards to new customers under its network in India. The RBI said the order would not impact existing customers of Mastercard.

    Reply
  33. SAS

    Now MASTERCARD is also banned by RBI. Effective from July 22

    Reply
  34. Mahesh S. Panicker

    Well, now MasterCard also being banned. This is going to have a far more serious impact than the previous bans on Amex or DC, and even more than market leader HDFC. As MasterCards platform is used by almost every bank. Think ICICI and SBI prefer Visa for most of their entry level cards at least, but they also have the MC variants. Will be interesting as to what happens to some of the most popular cards in the country, like Axis Flipkart. Perhaps Siddharth can have a new post on the impact of the MC Ban?

    Reply
    1. Rohit

      RBL uses only master card, yes bank, icici bank premier cards are amex and master card.
      Now better visa follow rbi norms or we will end up only with rupay card 😂

      Reply
  35. SAMEERTEZ

    Thank God, my RBL card got approved yesterday and will be dispatched in coming 2-3 days. I hope its get departed before master card ban due date.

    Reply
  36. manoj singh

    Master Card also banned. Please update this topic as well

    Reply
  37. KARTIKAY GAUR

    Had a general doubt. What happens to the corporates who issued Amex corporate cards for their employees (talking about big MNCs)? Does anyone know what cards are they issuing or are they not issuing any corporate cards at all?

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      All issuances are stopped. They couldn’t “re-instate” old personal cards too.

      Reply
  38. beginner

    Good News!!
    RBI partially lifts technology-ban on HDFC Bank with effect from August 17, the Central bank has allowed HDFC Bank to source new credit cards

    Reply
  39. Niju

    Sid,

    Just got ab popup article in money control and mint about partially lifting HDFC ban, with respect to sourcing/issuing new cards

    Reply
  40. Amrish

    Just saw a banner on hdfc app and webpage about pre approved LTF card, but when I entered my details, it threw up an error. Anybody else able to go through the journey? Looks like HDFC has started their campaign for sourcing cards.

    Reply
  41. Brahamdeep

    Any Idea as to when will the Dinners card would go away.
    I personally want Diners Premium over Regalia

    Reply
  42. Blacktaurian

    Can u publish an article on which cards are now compliant with RBI norms for recurring payments such as on Spotify, netflix etc

    Reply
  43. Varun Rao

    Have they started issuing diners cards yet? I wanted to upgrade my diners club card.

    Reply
    1. Ajai Singh

      Was told that Amex had started its 4th round of talks/review with gov by a Amex gov liaison officer and will be allowed into the market. Direct money transfer for points was disabled due to this reason among other many changes.

      I had asked specifically because I have discontinued my Platinum since retention offer was only 20k Taj codes now fishing for some great Platinum offers once the ban gets lifted.

      Reply
  44. Manoj singh

    Yes its good news… Congrats to AMEX and team. Hope we get new cards issued with good offers and good referral bonus.

    Reply

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