Mastercard has submitted a new audit report to the Reserve Bank of India, as it seeks to overturn a ban on card issuance linked to concerns over the US company’s handling of data processed abroad. 

The RBI on July 14 had sent panic waves through Indian banking partners by announcing a ban, effective from July 22, to prevent the Mastercard from issuing new cards. It had cited non-compliance with 2018 rules that required it to store payments data only in India. 

The RBI had imposed the ban after deciding that a “system audit report” submitted by Mastercard’s auditor Deloitte in April was unsatisfactory, three sources familiar with its decision-making said, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Two of the sources said that the RBI was reviewing the new report. 

In a statement, Mastercard said that Deloitte had performed a “supplemental audit” and a new report was submitted on July 20 to the RBI, six days after the ban was announced. 

“We look forward to continuing our conversations with the RBI and reinforcing how seriously we take our obligations. We are hopeful that this latest filing provides the assurances required to address their concerns,” it said.

Deloitte declined to comment, citing confidentiality obligations. The RBI did not respond to a request for comment. 

The sources said that the RBI was concerned that Deloitte’s audit did not clearly state how long Mastercard took to purge Indians’ card data that was processed abroad before being stored locally. 

India’s 2018 rules do not restrict where the data is processed, but for “unfettered supervisory access”, the RBI mandates that within a day the data – including transaction details and amount – should be stored domestically.