American Express will be able to onboard new customers with immediate effect. Credit: CardMapr.nl on Unsplash.

India’s central bank has lifted the business restrictions imposed on American Express, citing satisfactory compliance demonstrated by the firm.

In April 2021, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed restrictions on American Express for non-compliance with its circular on storage of payment system data.

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The US-based entity was barred from taking on new domestic customers onto its card network from 1 May 2021.

“In view of the satisfactory compliance demonstrated by American Express with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular dated 26 April 2018 on Storage of Payment System Data, the restrictions imposed, vide order dated 23 April 2021, on onboarding of new domestic customers have been lifted with immediate effect,” the regulator said.  

Welcoming the decision, American Express interim CEO & COO India Sanjay Khanna said: “India is a key strategic market for American Express and today’s decision is the result of our significant local investments in technology, infrastructure, and resources.

“American Express’ ability to deliver best in class value and customer experiences will enable us to meet the increasing demand for premium products and services and grow our business in India.”

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As per the initial circular, the regulator requires all payment system providers to ensure that all the data relating to payment systems operated by them should be locally stored.

The data covers the full end-to-end transaction details/information collected/carried/processed as part of the message/payment instruction.

In June this year, the RBI lifted restrictions imposed on Mastercard Asia / Pacific. The firm was subject to a similar ban for violating data storage norms.