The Reserve Bank of India has advised all scheduled commercial, small finance, payments and co-operative banks to integrate the Department of Telecommunications’ Financial Fraud Risk Indicator into their transaction-monitoring systems. The 30 June advisory, released publicly on 2 July, aims to strengthen defences against the growing incidence of cyber-enabled financial fraud. Developed by DoT’s Digital Intelligence Unit and launched in May 2025, the FRI classifies mobile numbers as medium, high or very high risk by pooling data from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre’s National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, DoT’s Chakshu platform and intelligence supplied by financial institutions. API-based links allow banks to receive the risk score in real time and take preventive measures such as declining or delaying suspect transactions or warning customers. DoT said leading institutions including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, India Post Payments Bank, PhonePe and Paytm are already connected to the platform. Wider adoption, particularly for UPI payments, is expected to shield millions of users and improve transparency by enabling swifter, coordinated action against fraud across the telecom and financial sectors.