Pressure from US digital payment companies forced India to mull the revision of new data storage regulations, though complaints led to a clash with leading mobile wallet company Paytm, Reuters reported.
According to the news website, US payment industry representatives met with Indian government officials in June to discuss a law unveiled earlier in the year requiring data related to payment operations to be stored within India.
The legislation is estimated to cost millions for companies based outside of the country.
Meanwhile India-based rival Paytm, which already stores all of its operational data in the country, backed the regulations and strongly opposed any watering down of the law.
The US-headquartered companies were not named, but apparently argued the rules would hamper global fraud detection measures. Paytm claims the law is in the national interest and, in comments to Reuters, said there was no reason for data related to a transaction between two people in India to be available or stored overseas.
India has one of the world’s fastest growing mobile payment sectors thanks to a string of government initiatives to reduce cash usage. Players in payments, chat app companies and mobile operators have all earmarked the sector as a potential growth area.
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