Overview
- An inter‑departmental panel set up in December under the Home Ministry is studying an emergency button in banking and UPI apps to instantly halt a user’s transactions during suspected scams.
- The committee is evaluating real‑time fraud flags and measures to prevent stolen funds from being rapidly dispersed into multiple mule accounts to improve recovery chances.
- Insurance options, including a pooled model and concepts like a Digital Payment Protection Fund, are under discussion following RBI questions about the adequacy of current risk‑transfer tools.
- A status report has been submitted to the Supreme Court, and MeitY convened a January 6 meeting with intermediaries including Google, WhatsApp, Telegram and Microsoft to coordinate responses.
- No formal regulatory proposal has reached major insurers yet, even as RBI data record 23,879 fraud cases totaling Rs 34,771 crore and digital‑arrest losses are estimated near Rs 3,000 crore.