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RBI Mandates Banks to Adopt DoT’s Financial Fraud Risk Indicator for Cybersecurity.

Banking & Finance | Dated: 03 Jul 2025

From June 30, 2025, the RBI has mandated all scheduled commercial banks, small finance banks, payments banks, and co-operative banks to integrate DoT’s Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) via API, bolstering real-time fraud detection and cybersecurity.

🎯 Key Highlights:

  • - The RBI advisory issued on June 30, 2025, requires scheduled commercial banks, small finance banks, payments banks, and co-operative banks to integrate DoT’s FRI system into their fraud management frameworks, enabling real-time classification of mobile numbers involved in financial fraud—tagged as Medium, High or Very High risk
  • - Launched by DoT’s Digital Intelligence Unit in May 2025, the FRI aggregates intelligence from multiple sources including I4C’s National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, DoT’s Chakshu platform, Mobile Number Revocation Lists and financial institutions to classify mobile numbers based on multi-dimensional analysis
  • - The RBI emphasised API-based integration with DoT’s Digital Intelligence Platform, enabling banks and UPI players to decline suspicious transactions, delay or flag them for verification, thereby strengthening consumer protection in the UPI system, which averaged 596 million daily transactions in April 2025

💡 Other Important Facts:

  • (i) Early adopters like PhonePe, PNB, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Paytm, Google Pay, and India Post Payments Bank have already integrated FRI, using it to block transactions from “Very High” risk numbers and issue alerts on “Medium” risk ones, demonstrating predictive accuracy and risk mitigation
  • (ii) DoT officials describe RBI’s move as a “watershed moment” in cyber-fraud prevention and highlight the significance of telecom–financial collaboration, noting the capacity for continuous feedback loops to refine fraud-risk modelling over time
  • (iii) This RBI mandate aligns with broader cybersecurity policy direction, including RBI’s zero-trust and AI-aware defence approach, as recently reiterated by Governor Sanjay Malhotra urging banks to enhance third-party oversight and proactive fraud prevention systems

📚 Test Your Knowledge:

Which organisation recently mandated the integration of the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) system developed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for all banks in India?

Correct Answer: RBI

🚀 Quick Recap: