Plan in works to compensate victims of financial frauds

NEW DELHI: Banks and financial institutions will formulate an action plan for returning funds to victims from fraudulent accounts, a finance ministry statement said on Friday.

They will also phase out the use of regular 10-digit numbers and use specific number series such as '140xxx' for commercial or promotional activities as prescribed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, it said. These steps are part of the measures worked out by the government to tackle challenges arising from cyber security in the financial services sector.

On Friday, the financial services secretary Vivek Joshi reviewed the preparedness of banks and other financial institutions at a time when digital payment frauds have increased.


The finance ministry said that banks and financial institutions will share information in a standardised format for ease of analysis by law enforcement agencies and further ensure round-the-clock availability of resources to promptly address complaints, which will improve the fraud-to-hold ratio.

The ministry said the DoT has blocked about 1.40 lakh mobile handsets, either linked to disconnected mobile connections or misused in cybercrime or financial fraud. The other issues discussed included onboarding of banks or financial institutions on the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System platform through API integration.