Centre checks on banks' cyber fraud readiness

The government on Tuesday took stock of the preparedness of the banks and other financial institutions in tackling the challenges arising from cybersecurity in the financial services sector and increasing digital payment frauds. The government has already suspended seven million mobile numbers on account of suspicious transactions, financial services secretary Vivek Joshi said.

So far, Rs 900 crore defrauded money has been saved, benefiting 350,000 victims, the finance ministry noted in a statement.

“There is a need to create awareness about cyber fraud in society to protect gullible customers from being duped,” Joshi said after a meeting attended by officials from the finance ministry, the Reserve Bank of India, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the National Payments Corporation of India, and other stakeholders, including banks.

The officials deliberated on a focused approach to mitigate such cyberattacks and frauds and ensure better coordination among various agencies to check cyber fraud.

Among other measures, the government is examining blocking of mobile phones using IMEI numbers to curb cyber fraud, Joshi said.

Strategy to tackle the menace of mule accounts by banks and whitelisting of digital lending apps through consultation with relevant stakeholders were among the issues discussed, the finance ministry said in its statement.

Banks have been told “to improve the response time in handling the alerts on online financial frauds received from different agencies”, it said, adding that there will be renewed focus on facilitating seamless coordination between police, banks and financial entities for real-time tracking and blocking of defrauded money.

Appointment of regional or state-level nodal officers by banks and financial institutions to cater to the requirements of law enforcement agencies and maintaining a central registry of onboarding of merchants and standardisation of KYC were also discussed, the statement said.