Mastercard has agreed to delete data of Indian cardholders from global servers in line with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) new regulation on data localisation.

The RBI issued a new regulation in April this year, mandating all payments information of Indians to be stored in the country. This regulation came into effect on 16 October.

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However, the card giant warned that deletion of Indian card data from global servers could weaken ‘safety and security’ over certain duration.

Mastercard division president of South Asia Porush Singh told news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) that no other country has asked the company to delete data from global servers.

The card company added that all new Indian transaction data is being stored at its technology centre in Pune as of 6 October.

Mastercard has proposed to the RBI to delete back-data from an undisclosed date, but is cautious of consequences such as disputes over transactions.

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Singh said: “The proposal we have given (to RBI) is that we will delete it (data) from everywhere else, whether it is the card number, transaction details. The data will only be stored in India.

“But we have also said that it does have an impact. No other country in the world has asked us the data to be deleted from the global server and the reason why it is a concern for us because that would be weakening of the safety, security over a period of time.”