The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday set firm deadlines for the banking and financial services industry to adopt the dedicated ‘1600’ numbering series for service and transactional calls. The move aims to curb the surge in impersonation-based financial frauds carried out through deceptive voice calls. With the transition, customers will be able to instantly recognise calls from regulated financial institutions, helping them distinguish genuine interactions from scams disguised as official banking communication.
Trai said that commercial banks, including public sector, private and foreign banks, must fully migrate to the ‘1600’ series by January 1, 2026. The requirement stretches across the BFSI ecosystem. Mutual funds and asset management companies will need to make the shift by February 15, 2026, while qualified stockbrokers must adopt the series by March 15, 2026.
Timeline for RBI regulated institutes
Among RBI-regulated institutions, large NBFCs, payments banks and small finance banks are expected to onboard by February 1, 2026, followed by remaining NBFCs, cooperative banks, regional rural banks and other smaller players by March 1, 2026. In the pension space, central record keeping agencies and pension fund managers have been given a deadline of February 15, 2026. Trai added that separate timelines for insurance companies will be announced after consultations with IRDAI.
The ‘1600’ numbering pool has been earmarked by the department of telecommunications specifically for BFSI and government organisations, ensuring their official calls stand out clearly from commercial promotional outreach.
TRAI on the shift
According to Trai, this shift is essential to rebuilding consumer confidence, reducing spam and shutting down avenues that fraudsters use to impersonate trusted financial brands.
The regulator pointed out that adoption is already underway, with roughly 485 entities having onboarded the ‘1600’ series and more than 2,800 numbers issued. Following extensive discussions with telecom operators and sectoral regulators through the joint committee of regulators, Trai concluded that the time is right for a coordinated, time-bound rollout. The goal now is to ensure rapid migration by organisations still using standard 10-digit numbers, reducing the risk of misleading calls made under the guise of legitimate financial institutions.