Trai Mandates 1600 Number Series for Banks, BFSI by 2026 to Curb Fraud

The BFSI sector includes financial institutions like banks, NBFCs, mutual funds, insurance firms and others alike. However, the Trai said that mandating clear completion timelines, commercial banks, including public sector banks, private sector banks, and foreign banks, should be onboard by January 1, 2026. “The 1600-series direction has been issued to enhance consumer trust, curbing spam, and preventing fraudulent activities perpetrated through voice calls,” the regulator said.

“Trai today issued a direction mandating the last dates by which adoption of the 1600 numbering series should be completed by entities regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA),” Trai said in a release.

It is pertinent to mention that 1600 numbering series has been assigned by the department of telecommunications (DoT) for allocation to entities in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector, and government organisations to clearly distinguish their service and transactional calls from other commercial communications. “The dedicated series will enable citizens to reliably identify legitimate calls originating from regulated financial institutions,” it said.

As per the regulator, adoption of 1600 numbering series for all mutual funds and asset management companies (AMCs) shall be completed by February 15, 2026, while commercial banks (including public sector banks, private sector banks, and foreign banks) shall onboard by January 1, 2026. “Adoption of '1600' numbering series for all qualified stockbrokers (QSBs) has to be completed by March 15, 2026,” it said.

“For the time being, other Sebi-registered intermediaries may voluntarily migrate to the 1600-series after verification of their registration details. Among RBI-regulated entities, large NBFCs, payments banks, and small finance banks have been asked to onboard by February 1, 2026, and remaining NBFCs, co-operative banks, regional rural banks, and smaller entities are required to onboard by March 1, 2026,” it said.

“Central recordkeeping agencies (CRAs) and pension fund managers shall be onboard by February 15, 2026. Mandating the last date for adoption of '1600' series by the entities in the insurance sector is under discussion with IRDAI, and will be notified subsequently,” the regulator added.

Trai also said that it has regularly engaged with telecom operators and the BFSI sector regulators for adoption of 1600 series by BFSI entities. “Consequent to these efforts, about 485 entities have already adopted 1600 series, subscribing to a total of over 2800 numbers. Based on Trai’s interactions with stakeholders, it was considered that time is now ripe to mandate time-bound completion of the exercise so that entities continuing to use standard 10-digit numbers for service and transactional calls, also shift to 1600 series numbers to reduce the risk of fraudulent or misleading calls being made in the guise of trusted financial institutions,” it said.