RBI in talks to set up registry to check banking frauds

Payment system participants will be provided access to this registry for near-real time fraud monitoring. The aggregated fraud data will be published to educate customers on emerging risks.

Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched an integrated consumer grievance redressal mechanism for addressing service deficiencies in banking, NBFCs and digital payment systems. (File Photo)

With the intent of improving consumer protection amid cases of digital frauds, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is in discussions to set up a fraud registry to create a database of fraudulent websites, phones and various methods used by fraudsters.

The RBI is in discussions with different stakeholders including the central bank’s department of payments and settlement and supervision, RBI Executive Director Anil Kumar Sharma said in an interaction, adding that such a database will help prevent these fraudsters from repeating the fraud as the websites or phone numbers would be blacklisted.

Sharma, however, said that there is “no definite timeline” for setting up of the fraud registry. “At present, we are talking to different stakeholders including different departments like payments and settlement and supervision of RBI,” he said.

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Payment system participants will be provided access to this registry for near-real time fraud monitoring. The aggregated fraud data will be published to educate customers on emerging risks.

Sharing complaints filed under the Ombudsman Scheme, he said, 4.18 lakh complaints were received during 2021-22 as against 3.82 lakh in the previous year. As many as 97.9 per cent cases were cleared last financial year as compared to 96.5 per cent in the preceding year. About 39 per cent of the complaints received by the RBI during last financial year related to digital transactions.

Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched an integrated consumer grievance redressal mechanism for addressing service deficiencies in banking, NBFCs and digital payment systems. To make the alternate dispute redressal mechanism simpler and more responsive to the customers of regulated entities, the Prime Minister had launched ‘One Nation One Ombudsman’.