Reserve Bank of India preparing a registry to blacklist fraudsters

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a formal meeting with journalists said it is currently preparing a fraud registry that shall include contact numbers, IP addresses of fraudsters who are defrauding consumers and banks on a persistent basis.

RBI Executive Director, Anil Kumar Sharma said, "In future we will have a registry of all fraudsters. We are currently working on this idea, and in constant touch with all agencies to exchange information. Our idea is to identify fraudsters by IP addresses, contact numbers, location, etc."

Sharma also added that there is no definite timeline for setting up the fraud registry. RBI has been conducting internal meetings, especially with its supervision and payments & settlements department to work on the process, he added.

As per official data, RBI reserved 4.18 lakh complaints last fiscal, 9.39 per cent up from the 2020-2021 fiscal. As many as 97.9 per cent cases were cleared last financial year as compared to 96.5 per cent in the preceding year.

Issues relating to ATM/debit cards, mobile & electronic banking, and credit cards formed the single largest block of complaints at 39 per cent, while issues relating to loans and advances by banks formed the second largest chunk at 28 percent.

As per current rules, customers are given 30 days to resolve their issues. In case this fails, the customers have the option of approaching the Integrated Ombudsman of RBI for grievance redressal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year launched an integrated consumer grievance redressal mechanism for addressing service deficiencies in banking, NBFCs and digital payment systems.