The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted the restrictions imposed on Diners Club International and allowed it to take new domestic customers.

The credit card issuer met with the central bank’s norms on data localisation.

On April 23, the RBI had barred Diners Club from taking fresh customers from May 1. The RBI took the supervisory action in exercise of powers vested under Section 17 of the Payment and Settlement Systems (PSS) Act, 2007.

In April 2018, the central bank had directed payment system providers to store all data only in India within a period of six months.

They were required to report compliance to the RBI and submit a board approved system audit report.

The directive was issued after the banking regulator observed that not all system providers were storing the payments data in India.

“In view of the satisfactory compliance demonstrated by Diners Club International Ltd with the RBI circular... on Storage of Payment System Data, the restrictions imposed, vide order dated April 23, 2021, on on-boarding of fresh domestic customers have been lifted with immediate effect,” the RBI said on Tuesday. Apart from Diners Club, the RBI barred American Express in April.

In July, the banking regulator restricted Mastercard from issuing new debit, credit and prepaid cards on similar grounds. The restrictions imposed on both American Express and Mastercard continue even as it is learnt that another major player Visa is in compliance with the data storage rules.