After more than a year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted the restrictions on American Express Banking Corp and allowed it to issue cards to new customers in India.

The central bank had restricted American Express from on-boarding new clients with effect from 1 May 2021 as it failed to meet data localisation norms.

Banking Corp for being non-compliant with the directions on Storage of Payment System Data effective May 1, 2021.

“In view of the satisfactory compliance demonstrated by American Express Banking Corp with the RBI circular on Storage of Payment System Data, the restrictions imposed on on-boarding of new domestic customers have been lifted with immediate effect,” the central bank said in a statement.

In April 2018, all payment system providers were directed to ensure that their entire data (full end-to-end transaction details/ information collected/ carried/ processed as part of the message/ payment instruction) relating to payment systems operated by them is stored in a system only in India.

They were also required to report compliance to RBI and submit a board-approved System Audit Report (SAR) conducted by a CERT-In empanelled auditor within the specified timelines.