In a major stride towards combating cyber-enabled financial fraud, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has advised all banks to integrate the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) developed by DoT into their systems, a Ministry of Communications release stated.
The advisory was issued to all Scheduled Commercial Banks, Small Finance Banks, Payments Banks, and Co-operative Banks on June 30, 2025. Banks and financial institutions can use the FRI in real time, which classifies mobile numbers based on their association with medium, high or very high risk of financial fraud.
This classification, it said, is an outcome of inputs obtained from various stakeholders including reporting on Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C’s) National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), DoT’s Chakshu platform, and Intelligence shared by banks and financial institutions.
What is FRI and how it works
It enables stakeholders—particularly banks, NBFCs, and UPI service providers—to strengthen enforcement and implement extra customer protection measures when a mobile number is flagged as high risk. Additionally, the Ministry of Communications said that the Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) of DoT routinely shares the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL) with these entities, outlining numbers that have been disconnected due to links with cybercrime, failed re-verification, or misuse—many of which are associated with financial fraud.
Real-time protection through API integration
It also highlights the critical role of automating data exchange between banks and DoT’s Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) through API-based integration, allowing for real-time action and ongoing feedback to continuously improve fraud risk models.
Early adopters and real-world usage
The efficacy of the FRI has already been proven, with early adoption by many financial institutions such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, India Post Payments Bank, PhonePe, Paytm, and others. “Banks and financial institutions can use FRI in real time to take preventive measures such as declining suspicious transactions, issuing alerts or warnings to customers, and delaying transactions flagged as high risk,” the release stated.
The FRI facilitates prompt, focused, and coordinated action against suspected fraud across both telecom and financial sectors.
A nationally coordinated, tech-first initiative against fraud
DoT has reiterated its commitment to supporting banks and financial institutions in their efforts to combat cyber-enabled frauds through nationally coordinated, technology-first initiatives like FRI.
With broader adoption of FRI across customer-facing systems, it is poised to become an industry-wide benchmark—enhancing trust, supporting real-time decision-making, and strengthening the overall resilience of India’s digital financial ecosystem.
