New domains to bank soon to tackle cyber frauds

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is launching special internet domains for financial sector participants, including banking and non-banking entities.

Indian banks will have the “bank.in” domain, while non-bank entities will have the “fin.in” domain. Registration for this will start from April this year.

The RBI’s move to launch the special domain comes in view of the need to prevent cyber security threats such as phishing attacks.

“The initiative is aimed at mitigating cyber security threats and malicious activities such as phishing and streamlining secure financial services, thereby enhancing trust in digital banking and payment services,” the RBI said in a statement on development and regulatory policies.

According to RBI data, over 18,000 cyber fraud incidents amounting to Rs 21,367 crore were reported in the first half of the current financial year (H1FY25). There were 14,480 incidents of fraud in H1FY24, with the amount involved being only Rs 2,623 crore. The amount involved in frauds in FY24 was the lowest in a decade, while the average value was the lowest in 16 years.