The series will enable citizens to reliably identify legitimate calls coming from regulated financial institutions, says telecom regulator | Photo credit: Dado Ruvic
It said RBI-regulated entities such as commercial banks (including public sector banks, private sector banks and foreign banks) should be on board by January 1, 2026, while SEBI-regulated entities, including all mutual funds and asset management companies (AMCs), should complete adoption of ‘1600’ number ranges by February 15, 2026.
“The directive has been issued with the aim of increasing consumer confidence, combating spam and preventing fraudulent activities through telephone calls,” the report said.
The ‘1600’ number range has been designated by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), in response to TRAI’s initiative, for assignment to banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector entities and government organizations to clearly distinguish their services and transactional calls from other commercial communications.
“The series will enable citizens to reliably identify legitimate calls coming from regulated financial institutions,” the industry regulator said.
After allotment of the ranges and allocation of number resources to the telecom service providers (TSPs), TRAI has been in regular touch with TSPs and the BFSI sector regulators for adoption of 1600 ranges by BFSI sector entities. As a result of these efforts, approximately 485 entities have already acquired 1,600 series, subscribing to a total of more than 2,800 issues.
“Based on TRAI’s interactions with stakeholders, it was assessed that the time is now ripe to make time-bound completion of the exercise mandatory so that entities that continue to use standard 10-digit numbers for service and transaction calls also switch to 1600 series numbers to reduce the risk of fraudulent or misleading calls being made in the guise of trusted financial institutions,” it added.
Published on November 19, 2025
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