What’s happening with RBI’s data localization rules?

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Editor's note: On 6 April 2018, the Reserve Bank of India ordered global payment companies to store all data on transactions of Indian customers in India. The regulator then said, “All system providers shall ensure that the entire data relating to payment systems operated by them are stored in a system ‘only’ in India.” The idea behind this “data localization” mandate was to ensure “better monitoring” and “unfettered supervisory access” to data stored with payment system providers, according to the RBI guidelines. And payments companies were then given till 15 October 2018 to comply with these data localization norms. But the deadline came and went, and nothing much had changed. A senior payments industry official then had told me that most payments giants had thought they would find a way to lobby around the requirements. Just days before the deadline, American companies called on the US government to put pressure on the Indian authorities, resulting in it becoming a trade issue.  As much as the payments companies would have liked to wish away data localization, though, RBI wouldn’t back down. The companies …