New Delhi, Nov 19 (PTI) TRAI on Wednesday mandated clear deadlines for phase-wise adoption of dedicated '1600' numbering series to be used by regulated entities such as banks, NBFCs, mutual funds and others for making service and transactional calls, in a bid to curb impersonation-based financial frauds perpetrated through voice calls.

Mandating clear completion timelines, it said commercial banks, including public sector banks, private sector banks, and foreign banks, should onboard by January 1, 2026.

"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.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) further the 1600-series direction has been issued to enhance consumer trust, curbing spam, and preventing fraudulent activities perpetrated through voice calls.

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, TRAI said.

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, as per TRAI.

Adoption of '1600' numbering series for all qualified stockbrokers (QSBs) has to be completed by March 15, 2026.

"For the time being, other Sebi-registered intermediaries may voluntarily migrate to the 1600-series after verification of their registration details," TRAI said.

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.

"Central recordkeeping agencies (CRAs) and pension fund managers shall onboard by February 15, 2026," TRAI said.

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 said 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 timebound 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," TRAI said.

The telecom regulator has taken inputs regarding timelines from the regulators of the BFSI sector, following deliberations held during the meetings of the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR).

"Based on the consultations held with them, a phase-wise implementation schedule has now been issued," according to TRAI. PTI MBI TRB

Dedicated 1600 numbering series mandated for BFSI entities with phase-wise onboarding deadlines to curb impersonation-based voice fraud. A directive requires phased, timebound migration of BFSI and related entities to a dedicated '1600' numbering series for service and transactional voice calls, assigning staggered onboarding deadlines for banks, mutual funds, stockbrokers, NBFCs (by category), payments and small finance banks, cooperative and regional rural banks, central recordkeeping agencies, and pension fund managers to replace standard ten digit numbers, with insurance sector timelines to be notified and voluntary migration allowed initially for certain securities intermediaries following registration verification.