How Will RBI’s “.bank.in” and “.fin.in” Domains Help Stop Phishing Attacks?

Phishing scams in the banking sector in India are on the rise and have become more frequent and very serious over a short period of time. It feels like every couple of weeks there’s news of another unsuspecting customer trusting a fraudulent website that looks exactly like an actual bank portal and losing their hard earned savings.

It is good to know that The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is taking action and has created two trusted domain extensions “.bank.in” and “.fin.in” to prevent phishing.

This extension is much more than an update to the website URL. This is an intentional vision for RBI phishing prevention that builds digital trust, allows for better security in banks and NBFCs, and helps customers quickly identify an actual financial website.

For students and professionals who want to understand these strategies in depth, enrolling in a cyber security and ethical hacking course in India is a practical way to gain skills in phishing detection, fraud prevention, and digital trust-building.

This post sets out to explain what this means and why it is important.

What Are RBI’s New “.bank.in” and “.fin.in” Domains?

The goal of the RBI was clear when it recently announced the launch of “.bank.in” and “.fin.in” two domain interfaces that are specifically reserved for India’s regulated financial institutions.

“.bank.in” is aimed at scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks, co-operative banks, payment banks and other RBI regulated lenders.

“.fin.in” is aimed at non-banking financial companies (NBFC), insurance companies and other registered financial service providers.

In summary, only institutions authorized and recognized by the RBI can use these domains, therefore allowing customers to have a simple means to verify a banking website is real or not.

Why Phishing Attacks Are a Growing Threat in India

To recognize RBI’s effort, we need to consider the size of the phishing issue in India:

As reported by CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team), phishing incidents exceeded 5 lakh reported cases in 2024. A large percentage of that consisted of banking fraud.

Fraudsters set up fake websites with slight alterations in domain names aimed at looking authentic, like sbibankindia.com instead of sbi.co.in. Customers log in with their credentials, and criminals are all set to steal it.

Fraudsters employ social engineering, using SMS phishing (smishing) and, in some instances email phishing, to boost the legitimacy of those fake sites.

The problem is that customers are unable to distinguish between real or fake banking sites. The RBI has launched two domains holding the brand for “.bank.in” and `.fin.in` domains that aim to remedy this.

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How RBI’s New Domains Help Prevent Phishing

Here’s how the RBI .bank.in domain and .fin.in domain assist with limiting phishing:

1. Guaranteed Authenticity

Only licensed and regulated entities can use these domains. If a customer sees xyzbank.bank.in, then they know this domain is authorized and sanctioned by RBI. This completely removes the confusion from fake lookalike domains.

2. Customer Trust & Awareness

Once customers are educated and familiar with these domains, it becomes that much easier for them to identify when scams are occurring. Instead, of second guessing if hdfcbnk.com is real, they will know to trust only the urls ending in .bank.in or .fin.in.

3. Spoofing Prevention

Phishers will rely on domain names that look similar but are not original. However, as the “.bank.in” and “.fin.in” domains are well defined and tightly controlled, phishers or fraudsters cannot go out and buy .bank.in or .fin.in, nor can they take one of our domains featuring their misspellings and try to phish us. This leads to a direct reduction of phishing attempts.

4. Aligning with Global Practices

Many years ago, the US rolled out “.bank” as a secure domain for banks; research has indicated this led to a massive reduction in phishing success rates. RBI’s actions today would reflect similar global market best practices for banks in India.

5. Supporting RBI’s push for Cyber Security

RBI’s actions today support and reinforce its Cyber Security push with other actions implemented to protect the banking ecosystem; for example, multi-factor authentication, card tokenisation, and bank fraud detection systems with monitoring. The above issues together demonstrate a layered approach to combating cyber crime.

Real-World Impact: How Customers Benefit

Let us now explore a typical example:

A customer receives an SMS supposedly from their bank and has an attached link: securelogin-hdfc.com.

In the present day, it is nearly impossible for the average person to differentiate between real and fake.

Tomorrow, they would know: if the link does not end with .bank.in, it is not real.

This quick check could save lakhs of rupees on fraud losses!

Another example: NBFCs and microfinance companies are frequently targeted with spoofing attacks. With “.fin.in”, customers can validate real sites, and this digital differentiation can also help to reduce fraud in the non-banking financial industry.

Case Studies of Phishing in India

1.   The SBI Phishing Scam

A large number of customers received a fake email that diverted customers to a website that masqueraded as SBI’s net banking page. Customers lost money after entering their credentials. With the new domain system, the only site that customers could trust was sbi.bank.in, making it easier for customers to recognize the scam before entering their credentials.

2.   NBFC Loan Fraud Websites

Several websites that pretended to offer instant loans through intranet loans, forced users to pay so-called “processing fees”. An RBI “.fin.in” would be able to properly identify true NBFC portals.

These two examples reflect our understanding of how RBI phishing prevention ultimately provides more user protection.

Global Perspective: Learning from the “.bank” Domain

A major milestone in online banking occurred in the US in 2015 which was the launch of “.bank” domains. Institutions that used “.bank”:

• Experienced a clear reduction in phishing attempts.
• Developed greater customer trust and confidence for online banking.
• Developed a clear branding advantage as “safety” became associated with “.bank” domains.

RBI’s launch of “.bank.in” and “.fin.in” is expected to provide similar outcomes in India which is experiencing very rapid growth in digital banking adoption.

What Customers Should Do Next

RBI’s initiative is a strong one, but if it is to be successful, it relies on both awareness and uptake. Here’s what customers should be aware of:

Check the URL – Trust only banking and financial services websites with “.bank.in” or “.fin.in.”

Be careful with links internally in emails/SMS – Even when the message looks real, type the official domain in your browser.

Flag fake sites – If you see a suspicious website, report it to your bank and CERT-In.

Use official mobile applications – Download mobile applications from official app stores, and make sure it matches the domains of the bank or financial services.

The Bigger Picture: Strengthening India’s Financial Cybersecurity

In essence, RBI is developing a trusted digital ecosystem for India’s financial landscape. Now that UPI is seeing monthly transaction volumes reaching several billion and digital banking is now normalized, we know that phishing and fraudulent attacks will just keep getting more sophisticated.

By using .bank.in and .fin.in only for regulated entities, the RBI is erecting a strong filter between legitimate regulated entities and the fraudsters. In time, what this will do is:

• Reduce losses associated with fraud.
• Heighten customer trust in digital banking.
• Create a gold standard for other sectors to emulate, such as healthcare and e-commerce.

Conclusion

The introduction of RBI .bank.in domain and .fin.in domain is not just a technical development; it is a tipping point of customer safety. Phishing attacks in India have exploited confusion and lack of awareness for too long. In this case, the RBI is cutting through the noise by issuing people a simple rule – If it is not .bank.in or .fin.in, do not trust it.

The more adoption progresses and the more awareness builds, the more special this initiative will become for RBI phishing prevention. This represents a world going forward where Indian customers can bank online with greater certainty, knowing their financial safety has a regulator that is staying ahead of the counterfeiters.

And for those that want to broaden their knowledge in this area, enrolling into a cyber security course in India will provide them with the right knowledge and skills to combat phishing and other digital threats.

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