RBI extends timeline for compliance of some card business directions

NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday extended the timeline for implementation of certain directions relating to credit and debit card business.

The RBI, in a notification, said on receipt of representations from the industry stakeholders, the timeline for adherence to certain directions has been extended to October 1.

It had issued the directions on April 21, and these were to come into effect from July 1.

The extended timelines are for directions, including that card-issuers shall seek One Time Password (OTP) based consent from the cardholder for activating a credit card, if the same has not been activated by the customer for more than 30 days from the date of issuance.

If no consent is received for activating the card, card-issuers shall close the credit card account without any cost to the customer within seven working days from date of seeking confirmation from the customer.

Then, the card-issuers were 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.

There was to be no capitalisation of unpaid charges/levies/taxes for charging/ compounding of interest.