Considering the increased instances of fraud in digital payments, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is introducing the ‘bank.in’ exclusive internet domain for Indian banks to combat digital frauds, Governor Sanjay Malhotra said today.
“This initiative aims to reduce cyber security threats and malicious activities like phishing; and, streamline secure financial services, thereby enhancing trust in digital banking and payment services,” he said.
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The Institute for Development and Research in Banking’ Technology (IDRBT) will act as the exclusive registrar and actual registrations will commence from April 2025 onwards. Going forward, the regulator is planning to launch an exclusive domain “fin.in” for other non-bank entities in the financial sector.
Further, the governor said that introduction of additional factor of authentication (AFA) for digital payments has enhanced the safety of transactions which, in turn, provided confidence to customers to adopt digital payments. This requirement, however, is mandatory for domestic transactions only.
“In order to provide a similar level of safety for online international transactions using cards issued in India, it is proposed to enable AFA for international card not present (online) transactions as well,” the governor said.
This feature will provide an additional layer of security in cases where the overseas merchant is enabled for AFA and a draft circular will be issued shortly for feedback from stakeholders.
