The story so far: On July 5, apex banking regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) floated a draft circular seeking comments from stakeholders about mandating that card issuers provide their customers with the choice of multiple card networks. It also proposes to restrain issuers from entering into exclusive agreements with card networks. Feedback on the proposal, which would apply to credit, debit and prepaid cards, can be sent to the regulator by August 4.
What exactly has the RBI proposed and why?
The most important of the proposals entail that card issuers, or the concerned bank of the customer, provide them with the option to choose among the multiple card networks available. This would be either at the time of issue or at any other subsequent time.
