The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed banks and credit card companies like American Express, Diners Club, MasterCard, Rupay, and Visa not to enter into any exclusive agreement to issue credit cards.
In a notification the central bank has directed banks to provide an option to their customers to choose from multiple card networks at the time of issual and renewal of cards.
The notification follows a draft circular issued in July last year which asked banks to issue cards from more than one network provider giving an option to customers to choose any one among the multiple card networks.
“It is observed that some arrangements existing between card networks and card issuers are not conducive to the availability of choice for customers,” the RBI said.
All banks and payment networks have to adhere to the new norms whenever they are issuing new cards or renewing existing cards. The new RBI directions are applicable from September this year.
The directions are however not be applicable to credit card issuers with number of active cards at 10 lakh or less.
Also card issuers who issue credit cards on their own authorised card network are excluded from the applicability of the circular.
