DoT applauds RBI's advisory on financial fraud risk indicator implementation

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has commended the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) advisory dated 30 June 2025, which calls on all Scheduled Commercial Banks, Small Finance Banks, Payments Banks, and Co-operative Banks to integrate the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) into their systems. This move is aimed at strengthening the fight against cyber-enabled financial fraud.

The FRI is a risk assessment tool developed by the Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) of the DoT. It is designed to enhance real-time fraud detection across India’s digital financial infrastructure.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, 2 July 2025, the Ministry of Communications described the RBI’s directive as “a watershed moment in the fight against cyber-enabled financial fraud and a testament to the power of inter-agency collaboration in safeguarding citizens in India’s growing digital economy.”

How the FRI works: Multi-source intelligence and risk categorisation 

Introduced in May 2025, the FRI categorises mobile numbers linked to reported financial scams into Medium, High, or Very High risk levels. This classification draws upon data from multiple sources, including the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) operated by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), citizen reports submitted via the DoT’s Chakshu platform, and intelligence provided by banks and other financial institutions. The primary objective is to empower financial entities to take swift, targeted action to prevent fraud.

The FRI system exemplifies inter-agency collaboration by integrating financial intelligence with telecom data, thereby enhancing India’s defences against the rising threat of cybercrime. Given that the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is the most widely used payment method in India, this initiative could help protect millions of users from falling victim to online fraud.

Leading banks begin adoption of FRI 

Banks and other financial organizations can receive real-time risk assessments for mobile numbers by integrating the FRI through API-based solutions. This makes it possible for businesses to take preventative actions like rejecting transactions that pose a high risk, warning clients, or utilizing improved verification procedures. According to the Ministry, a number of significant financial institutions are already using the FRI system to strengthen their fraud detection skills, including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, PhonePe, Paytm, and India Post Payments Bank.

The DIU routinely provides partner institutions with a Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL) in addition to real-time notifications. This list contains numbers that have been disconnected because of misuse, failed re-verification, or verified connections to cybercrime; many of these numbers have been linked to financial fraud.

The Ministry added that the FRI enables timely, coordinated, and focused action against suspected fraud across both the financial and telecommunications sectors.

The DoT reaffirmed its commitment to supporting RBI-regulated entities in combatting financial fraud through technology-driven, nationally coordinated solutions.

“As more institutions integrate FRI into their customer-facing systems, it is expected to become a sector-wide standard, strengthening trust, enabling real-time decision-making, and enhancing systemic resilience across India’s digital financial architecture,” the Ministry of Communications stated in an official release.