The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is introducing the 'bank.in' exclusive Internet Domain for Indian banks. This initiative aims to reduce cyber security threats and malicious activities like phishing; and, streamline secure financial services, thereby enhancing trust in digital banking and payment services.
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, February 7, 2025: Introduction of Additional Factor of Authentication (AFA) for digital payments has enhanced the safety of transactions which, in turn, provided confidence to customers to adopt digital payments. This requirement, however, is mandatory for domestic transactions only. “In order to provide a similar level of safety for online international transactions using cards issued in India, it is proposed to enable AFA for international card not present (online) transactions as well. This will provide an additional layer of security in cases where the overseas merchant is enabled for AFA, said Sanjay Malhotra, Governor, Reserve Bank of India, while announcing the decisions of the MPC on Friday.
Draft circular will be issued shortly for feedback from stakeholders.
Enhancing Trust in the Financial Sector through 'bank.in' and ‘fin.in’ domains
Increased instances of fraud in digital payments are a significant concern. Sanjay Malhotra added: “To combat the same, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is introducing the 'bank.in' exclusive Internet Domain for Indian banks. This initiative aims to reduce cyber security threats and malicious activities like phishing; and, streamline secure financial services, thereby enhancing trust in digital banking and payment services. The Institute for Development and Research in Banking’ Technology (IDRBT) will act as the exclusive registrar. The actual registrations will commence from April 2025. Detailed guidelines for banks will be issued separately. Going forward, it is planned to have an exclusive domain viz., “fin.in” for other non-bank entities in the financial sector.”
