New Delhi – Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to improve information sharing and coordination to combat cyber-crimes and financial fraud, the government said on Thursday.
The agreement was signed by Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, deputy director general of DoT’s Digital Intelligence Unit and Amit Mohan Govil, director of FIU-IND, in the presence of Neeraj Mittal, secretary of telecommunications, and Arvind Shrivastava, revenue secretary.
The MoU will allow real-time sharing of Financial Fraud Risk Indicator data, which classifies mobile numbers based on their association with financial fraud. DoT will also provide FIU-IND with Mobile Number Revocation List information, including the date and reason for disconnections, while FIU-IND will share mobile numbers linked to accounts involved in suspicious transactions.
Data exchange will be conducted through DoT’s Digital Intelligence Platform and FIU-IND’s Finnex 2.0 portal, enabling secure, automated transmission between the agencies.
“As technology advances, departments have leveraged it to achieve their respective goals. While this is an essential first step, true progress lies in transcending departmental boundaries to address existing gaps. Developing synergies by learning from each other is crucial,” said telecom secretary Mittal.
He added that a joint working group could be set up to identify shell companies and carry out deeper collaborative analysis.
Revenue secretary Shrivastava said, “This is an excellent collaboration where both sides contribute to enhancing each other’s systems. Given the technology-driven nature of this partnership, I am confident it will deliver high efficiency in terms of accuracy and timeliness, enabling us to make optimal use of the data.”
The initiative builds on DoT’s Digital Intelligence Platform, which currently supports more than 700 users across government and financial institutions, including 36 state and union territory police forces, central law enforcement agencies, SEBI, NPCI, FIU-IND and 650 banks.
According to the government, the use of the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator has helped banks and financial institutions prevent or decline 4.8 million transactions, avoiding potential losses of 140 crore rupees.
The collaboration will also support the development of standard operating procedures, feedback mechanisms to improve analytics and guidelines for financial institutions to prevent fraud.
The MoU is part of broader efforts to strengthen cybersecurity and secure India’s growing digital payments ecosystem.
FIU-IND is responsible for analysing suspect financial transactions and coordinating measures against money laundering and financing of terrorism.
DoT’s Digital Intelligence Unit develops technological solutions to prevent misuse of telecom resources, including AI and big data tools such as ASTR, CIOR, Sanchar Saathi and the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator.
