India Tells Banks to Stop Exclusive Deals on Credit Cards
- RBI says banks must give choice to customers to select cards
- Move may hit Visa and Mastercard the most, benefit Rupay
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India’s central bank told the nation’s lenders to stop entering into exclusive agreements with credit card networks, in a surprise move that may deal a blow to the world’s largest payments firms including Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc.
Banks and non-bank lenders must stop “any arrangement or agreement with card networks that restrain them from availing the services of other card networks,” the Reserve Bank of India said on its website Wednesday. Lenders and the card networks such as Visa and Mastercard currently require customers to agree to terms that aren’t “conducive to the availability of choice for customers,” it said.