The Chairman reiterated the need for practical safeguards that deter spam and fraud without placing undue burden on legitimate businesses.
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SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Tuesday hosted a meeting of the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR) that focused on rolling out collaborative regulatory measures, especially in light of rising digital payment linked frauds and advance coordinated measures against spam, fraud, and misuse of telecom infrastructure.
The JCoR consisted of representatives from RBI, SEBI, IRDAl, PFRDA and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) convened by TRAI and also joined by officials from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
They discussed setting up timelines for migration to the dedicated 1600-number series for transactional and service calls in the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sectors, TRAI said.
Considering different scales of operation of entities, it was agreed that migration may be made in a phased manner based on the inputs provided by the sectoral regulators to TRAI, it noted.
The sector regulator also informed that a major pilot project is underway to enhance consumer control over commercial communications by replacing unverifiable, offline consents for commercial communication with a secure digital consent framework. The new mechanism will enable the consumers to digitally register, review, and revoke consents through a simple, unified and tamper-proof interface.
Coordinated by TRAI and RBI, the pilot includes telecom service providers (TSPs) and major banks such as SBI, PNB, ICICI, HDFC, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
“In an increasingly digitalised world, cross sectoral collaboration among regulators is crucial for coordinated enablement of services and protection of consumers from harm. In a digital first economy, collaboration among financial sector regulators, digital communication regulators and the security agencies becomes paramount,” Anil Kumar Lahoti, Chairman, TRAI said.
Lahoti also commended DoT’s recent launch of the financial fraud risk indicator (FRI), which labels numbers associated with financial scams.
The Chairman reiterated the need for practical safeguards that deter spam and fraud without placing undue burden on legitimate businesses. He also urged sectoral regulators to accelerate implementation within their respective domains and monitor progress closely.
Published on July 22, 2025