RBI extends deadline to implement card rules

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday extended, by three months, the deadline to implement three provisions as part of new regulatory guidelines for issuing credit and debit cards to 1 October. 

“Considering various representations received from the industry stakeholders, it has been decided to extend the timeline for implementation of the...provisions of the master direction to 1 October 2022,” RBI said in a notification on its website.

The first provision is regarding card issuers being mandated to seek one-time password-based consent from the cardholder for activating a credit card, if not activated by the customer for more than 30 days from the date of issuance. The RBI had said that if no consent is received for activating the card, card-issuers will have to close the credit card account without any cost to the customer within seven working days from date of seeking confirmation from the customer.

The second provision stated that card-issuers will have to ensure that the credit limit as sanctioned and advised to the cardholder is not breached at any point in time without seeking explicit consent from the cardholder. The third set of regulation said that issuers shall not capitalize on unpaid charges for compounding of interest.

“The stipulated timeline for implementation of rest of the provisions of the master direction remains unchanged,” RBI said on Tuesday.

Mint reported on 27 April that RBI’s guidelines were aimed at safeguarding the interests of credit card customers. These regulations mandate lenders to take consent of customers on various issues pertaining to credit cards and also strengthens the grievance redressal mechanism.