No more spam calls from banks for loans, credit cards:
TRAI, RBI join forces to provide relief to customers
Jun 18, 2025
Synopsis
TRAI has launched a pilot project focused on digital consent management, collaborating with RBI and certain banks, and directed all telecom service providers to engage in this pilot project with banks.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Reserve Bank of India have joined hands to implement measures aimed at reducing unwanted spam calls and messages related to loans and credit cards. A lot of people have expressed their dissatisfaction about receiving spam calls from companies with which they previously made purchases. However, these companies often claim that they have the consumer's permission to send these communications.
In an effort to curb the prevalence of spam calls, TRAI has launched a pilot project focused on digital consent management, collaborating with RBI and certain banks. On June 13, 2025, TRAI directed all telecom service providers (TSPs) to engage in this pilot project with banks.
In a release dated June 16, the Ministry of Communications highlighted that the banking sector will be the initial focus due to the sensitivity of financial transactions and the associated risk of fraud stemming from spam calls. "Given the sensitivity of banking transactions and cases of financial fraud through spam calls, the banking sector has been prioritised for the first phase of implementation. This pilot, running under a regulatory sandbox framework, will validate the operational, technical, and regulatory aspects of the enhanced consent registration function (CRF) and lay the foundation for sector-wise scaling of the digital consent ecosystem," the ministry said.
Consent from customers
The new regulations require companies to get consent digitally and register it in a secure system managed by telecom service providers (TSPs). This system will allow easy verification of consent before any commercial communication is sent. "However, for successful operation of this consent registration framework, onboarding of entities sending commercial communications is a necessary requirement," TRAI stated.
Measures taken by TRAI
In recent years, TRAI has introduced measures like allowing consumers to complain about unregistered telemarketers, even if they haven't registered for Do Not Disturb (DND), to curb spam calls. The telecom regulator has also disconnected telecom resources misused for spam. However, verifying if a consumer truly gave consent for commercial communication, especially offline, remains difficult.
In January, RBI asked banks to use only the '1600xx' phone numbering series to call customers for transactional purposes with a view to preventing financial fraud. It further said that for promotional purposes, banks and other regulated entities (REs) should use only the '140xx' numbering series for the prevention of financial fraud perpetrated using voice calls and SMS.
State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, in June issued a public advisory regarding the authenticity of calls originating from numbers beginning with +91-1600, aiming to strengthen consumer safety in the digital banking ecosystem. The bank has made clear that consumers can safely interact with these numbers without worrying about fraud; these numbers are used only for transactional and service-related calls.
[The Economic Times]
