The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended the timeline for implementation of three specific credit-card related provisions, contined in its “Credit and Debit Card – Issuance and Conduct” Directions, by three months.
The three provisions, which will now kick in from October 1, 2022, include one that requires card-issuers to 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.
The other two provisions relate to — card-issuers having 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; and no capitalisation of unpaid charges/ levies/ taxes for charging/ compounding of interest.
The deadline extension specifically for the aforementioned provisions comes in the wake of RBI receiving various representations from the industry stakeholders.
The central bank had issued the “Master Direction – Credit Card and Debit Card – Issuance and Conduct Directions, 2022” in April 2022. The Directions are effective from July 1, 2022.