Last updated on February 24th, 2025 at 05:57 am
New Delhi, January 17, 2025:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued new directives in a bid to curb financial frauds as digital transactions continue to rise. In a circular issued on Friday, the RBI ordered banks and other regulated entities (REs) to use specific phone numbering series while making calls to customers for transactional and promotional purposes.
Key Instructions to Banks and Regulated Entities
The RBI circular has mandated the banks to only use the ‘1600xx’ telephone numbering series for the purpose of making transactional calls to customers. The reason is to avoid fraudsters from posing as a legitimate organization and making voice calls or sending SMS for attempting financial frauds. For promotional calls, it has mandated that banks and others use the ‘140xx’ series.
Monitoring and Database Cleaning
As part of its anti-fraud efforts, RBI has also mandated banks and REs to periodically scan and clean their customer database. This will help prevent mobile numbers from being misused due to their growing use in authenticating accounts, transaction alerts, and OTP communication.
Role of Mobile Numbers in Financial Fraud
The circular focuses on the increasing problem of mobile numbers being misused in financial frauds. These fraudsters frequently use customers’ mobile numbers for online scams such as account hacks and unauthorized financial transactions. While the mobile number has become an integral part of secure digital financial transactions, it becomes a source of risk when placed in the wrong hands.
More guidelines on fraud prevention
RBI clarified that there should not be any deviations made from the provisions of TRAI guidelines, on the ‘1600xx’ and ‘140xx’ number series while opting for the vehicle of commercial voice calls or SMS.
The RES have been urged to employ a clean-up through the use of the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL) found within the Department of Telecommunications- Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP).
More Active Fraud Risk Supervision
To strengthen the checks on fraud risk, RBI had asked RE to formulate SOP against frauds; these SOP to include steps about verification and update of registered mobile numbers and monitor accounts associated with cancelled mobile number so that chances of their get involved in frauds of the cyber world did not occur Compliance Deadline :
The RBI has directed all banks and REs to be fully compliant by March 31, 2025, thereby putting across the message of urgency in safeguarding customers’ financial data and frauds that may dilute trust in digital banking systems.
With these proactive measures, RBI aims to curb the increasing risks associated with digital transactions and secure the banking system and its customers from growing online fraud.