Credit Card portability: Change from Visa to MasterCard to RuPay or any network soon – What RBI said

financialexpress.com:

Credit Card portability rules 2023: From October 1, credit card, debit card and prepaid card customers will be able to port their networks. For example, card users would be able to port from Visa to MasterCard to RuPay or to any other network or vice-versa as per their choice.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest circular has made a proposal that will allow customers to change their debit, prepaid or credit card networks.

Currently, there are five credit card networks in India – Visa, MasterCard, RuPay, American Express and Diner’s Club. When the RBI’s proposal comes into effect from October 1, card users will have the choice of porting their cards from one network to another. That said, the following are details of the RBI’s proposal that you should know.

The RBI’s draft circular, which is currently open for comments and feedback, mandates card issuers (banks/non-banks) to issue cards on more than one card network along with providing customers the facility to choose any one among the multiple card networks.

The draft proposal also restrains card issuers from entering into agreements that limit their ability to tie up with other card networks.

Authorised card networks currently tie up with banks/non-banks for the issuance of debit, prepaid and credit cards. However, the choice of affiliated network for a card is decided by the card issuer. This choice is also linked to the arrangements that the card issuers have with the card network.

However, as per RBI’s circular, such arrangements between card issuers and networks do not provide freedom of choice to customers.

“On a review, it is observed that arrangements existing between card networks and card issuers (banks and non-banks) are not conducive to the