In a significant step to safeguard India’s financial ecosystem, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to combat the misuse of telecom resources in securities market frauds and investment scams.
The agreement signed on 15th April 2026, establishes a structured framework for data sharing aimed at the early detection and disruption of fraudulent activities. It marks a key collaboration between telecom intelligence and financial market regulation.
The MoU was signed by Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, Deputy Director General of the AI & Digital Intelligence Unit (AI&DIU) at DoT, and Sandip Pradhan, Whole Time Member of SEBI. The signing took place in the presence of Deb Kumar Chakrabarti, Member (Services) of the Digital Communications Commission.
Central to the partnership is the exchange of critical intelligence. DoT will share its Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) with SEBI, enabling the identification of mobile numbers associated with suspicious patterns through multi-dimensional analysis. DoT will also provide the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL) automatically, allowing SEBI-regulated entities such as brokers and asset management companies to link investor accounts only to active and valid mobile connections.
In return, SEBI will supply information on telecom resources linked to accounts involved in cyber fraud, impersonation, or money mule activities, facilitating prompt action on the telecom side.
This intelligence sharing will be facilitated through DoT’s Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP), which already connects more than 1,400 stakeholders and supports real-time exchange of actionable information.
The initiative is particularly relevant amid India’s growing digital investment landscape. By integrating telecom data with market surveillance, the MoU shifts the focus from reactive enforcement to proactive prevention. The Financial Fraud Risk Indicator serves as an early warning system, drawing on inputs from DoT’s Chakshu facility under the Sanchar Saathi initiative, financial institutions, and law enforcement agencies.
DoT’s existing efforts under Sanchar Saathi have already yielded substantial results. More than 88 lakh fraudulent mobile connections have been disconnected using the AI-driven ASTR tool, while the deployment of FRI has helped prevent financial losses estimated at approximately ₹2,300 crore in the past ten months.
The MoU paves the way for the development of standard operating procedures for coordinated responses and the institutional sharing of red-flag indicators. Officials anticipate that ongoing engagement and adaptive mechanisms will help counter evolving cyber threats, thereby bolstering investor protection and confidence in India’s digital financial ecosystem.
