Airtel is advocating for regulatory consultations, offering its assistance to the RBI in formulating frameworks that would hold Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms accountable for ensuring consumer safety, particularly in financial communications. Airtel, in a letter to RBI, expressed concerns regarding the growing security risks associated with OTT platforms, stating that achieving SMS-like protection levels on these platforms is "impossible." They highlighted that fraudulent links transmitted through OTT channels are more difficult to detect and intercept before reaching users, making these channels particularly vulnerable in the battle against online scams.
The company pointed out that the absence of traceability and compliance measures for OTT applications, which include data sovereignty, data confidentiality, encryption standards, and system access for regulators, raises significant security issues.
Furthermore, Airtel noted that the increasing dependence of financial institutions on OTT communication channels to transmit transactional and service messages, in order to bypass regulatory constraints applicable to telecom networks, raises security vulnerabilities.
In light of the ongoing RBI consultation regarding additional factor authentication for digital payments, Airtel emphasised the importance of conducting financial transactions over secure telecom networks. They argued that telecom networks provide a level of protection and oversight that OTT platforms lack, thus helping to reduce fraud risks and enhance consumer safety.
Reports indicated that the telecom company has received a positive reception to its collaboration proposal from both private and state-owned banks.
In the letter addressed to RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, Airtel’ Vittal praised the Reserve Bank of India's efforts in combating digital fraud. He particularly noted the recent initiative to collaborate with regulated entities and the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) for the development of MuleHunter.ai.
Vittal also highlighted that this advanced AI-based system has shown effectiveness in identifying mule accounts utilised for routing illicit funds. By analyzing user behavior and transaction patterns, he explained, banks can now more effectively flag and disable suspicious accounts, thus disrupting fraud at the transactional level.
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Inputs from PTI