RBI urges Banks to use DoT’s FRI Technology

• 07 Jul 2025
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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed all the Scheduled Commercial Banks, Small Finance Banks, Co-operative Banks and Payment Banks to use Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) into their systems. FRI is a cyber security mechanism developed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

The FRI technology was introduced by DoT in May 2025. This technology enables automated data and information exchange between banks and DoT-managed Digital Intelligence Platform. It protects customers from cyber frauds. It does so by providing real time responses to fraudulent activities. Moreover, it provides continuous monitoring and feedback to help improve fraud risk models. 

DoT, in a press release on 2 July 2025, said, “The system’s utility has already been demonstrated with leading institutions such as PhonePe, Punjab National Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Paytm, and India Post Payments Bank actively using the platform. With UPI being the most preferred payment method across India, this intervention could save millions of citizens from falling prey to cyber fraud. The FRI allows for swift, targeted, and collaborative action against suspected frauds in both telecom and financial domains.”

How can Banks prevent Cyber Frauds using FRI?

According to the DoT press release, the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator is a risk-based metric that evaluates a phone number to have been linked with medium, high or very high risk of financial fraud. 

DoT said, “This classification is an outcome of inputs obtained from various stakeholders including reporting on Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, DoT’s Chakshu platform and Intelligence shared by banks and financial institutions.”

The department said FRI technology helps stakeholders like banks, NBFCs and UPI services providers to give priority to enforcement and take additional measures for consumer protection if a phone number has high risk.

According to the press release, the Digital Intelligence Unit of DoT shares the Mobile Number Revocation List with stakeholders on a regular basis. This list details numbers disconnected due to cybercrime links, failed re-verification or misuse.

FRI enables Real-Time Preventive Measures for Cyber Frauds

According to the department of telecom, banks and other financial institutions can use FRI in real time to take preventative measures including rejecting suspicious transactions, warning or alerting clients and delaying transactions that have been identified as high risk.

“Banks can leverage FRI to proactively alert customers about suspicious calls or messages originating from numbers identified as high-risk. By integrating FRI into their digital banking platforms, customer service workflows and fraud detection engines, banks can strengthen their ability to identify potential threats in real-time. Moreover, by coupling FRI data with AI-based risk scoring and user behaviour, analytics can help banks predict and prevent fraud before it occurs. This enhances customer trust and reduces financial exposure, while also helping law enforcement trace fraud networks more effectively,” according to Mr. Tarun Wig, Co-founder & CEO, Innefu Labs says.

Further, DoT stated, “This move marks a new era of digital trust and security, reinforcing the Government’s broader Digital India vision. DoT continues to work closely with RBI-regulated entities to streamline alert mechanisms, accelerate fraud detection, and integrate telecom intelligence directly into banking workflows. As more institutions adopt FRI into their customer-facing systems, it is expected to evolve into a sector-wide standard, reinforcing trust, enabling real-time decision-making and delivering greater systemic resilience across India’s digital financial architecture.”

Source: Economic Times