New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday issued a path mandating the final dates by which adoption of the ‘1600’ numbering collection ought to be accomplished by entities within the Banking, Monetary Companies and Insurance coverage (BFSI) sector, and authorities organizations to obviously distinguish their service and transactional calls from different business communications.
The path has been issued with the target of curbing spam, and stopping fraudulent actions perpetrated via voice calls.
In response to TRAI’s regulatory initiative, the ‘1600’ numbering collection has been assigned by the Division of Telecommunications (DoT) for allocation to entities within the Banking, Monetary Companies and Insurance coverage (BFSI) sector, regulated by the RBI, SEBI, and Pension Fund Regulatory and Growth Authority (PFRDA) and Authorities organizations. The collection will allow residents to reliably establish reputable calls originating from regulated monetary establishments, an official assertion stated.
The directive states that the adoption of ‘1600’ numbering collection for all Mutual Funds and Asset Administration Firms (AMCs) shall be accomplished by February 15, 2026. Within the case of Certified Stockbrokers (QSBs) the adoption of ‘1600’ numbering collection shall be accomplished by March 15, 2026.
In the meanwhile, different SEBI-registered intermediaries might voluntarily migrate to the 1600-series after verification of their registration particulars, the directive states. Business banks (together with Public Sector Banks, Non-public Sector Banks, and Overseas Banks) should undertake the 1600 collection by January 1, 2026.
Massive NBFCs (asset measurement above Rs 5,000 crore), Funds Banks, and Small Finance Banks should onboard by February 1, 2026 whereas the remaining NBFCs, Co-operative Banks, Regional Rural Banks, and smaller entities shall onboard by March 1, 2026, the directive states.
Central report holding businesses and Pension Fund Managers shall onboard by February 15, 2026. The matter of mandating final date for adoption of 1600 collection by the entities within the insurance coverage sector is underneath dialogue with IRDAI, and can be notified subsequently, the official assertion stated.
The structured and time-bound adoption of the 1600-series is anticipated to considerably enhance client security and assist curb impersonation-based monetary frauds perpetrated via voice calls.
After the project of the collection and allocation of numbering sources to the Telecom Service Suppliers (TSPs), TRAI has commonly engaged with TSPs and the BFSI sector regulators for adoption of 1600 collection by BFSI sector entities. Consequent to those efforts, about 485 entities have already adopted 1600 collection, subscribing to a complete of over 2800 numbers, the assertion stated.
Based mostly on TRAI’s interactions with stakeholders, it was thought-about that point is now ripe to mandate time-bound completion of the train in order that entities persevering with to make use of customary 10-digit numbers for service and transactional calls, additionally shift to 1600 collection numbers to cut back the chance of fraudulent or deceptive calls being made within the guise of trusted monetary establishments, the assertion defined.
TRAI has taken inputs concerning timelines from the regulators of the BFSI sector, following deliberations held throughout the conferences of the Joint Committee of Regulators. Based mostly on the consultations held with them, a phase-wise implementation schedule has now been issued, the assertion added.