BENGALURU: Registering cellphone numbers is crucial for facilitating SMS alerts for every transaction made, so as to majorly curb the fraud cases. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) now has recognized the signifiacnce of cellphones in banking scenario, thus making it mandatory for all the banks across the country to enable their customers to register their mobile phone number from the ATM itself. The mandate also dictates banks to not force their customers to only visit the home branch for mobile number registration, rather allowing them to access the service across all branches. Additionally, as a part of the mandate, customers can access mobile registration facility through internet banking.

While making transactions, one-time passwords (OTPs) are generated using the mobile numbers. Employing the use of SMS alerts and OTPs have significantly helped to curb down banking frauds, as stated by credit card companies. Mobile number registration is an integral part of using a mobile banking application. Banks can only provide access to their customers for features such as 'missed call banking' and mobile banking, only when the clients register their cellphone numbers. The previous rule where customers had to strictly visit the home branch for the number registration process turned out irksome, especially for people who moved to newer cities.

RBI also made it compulsory for banks to insist their customers to register for electronic banking transaction alerts. This has been recognized as a part of RBI’s guidelines to limit liability of customers in fraudulent electronic banking transactions. The guideline also states that the chance of risk to the customer escalates with the increase in time taken to notify the bank. Banks have taken necessary steps to enable early reportingof fraudulent tranactions by rendering 24x7 access via several channels. Users can find the number registration feature in ATMS, either in the main menu or under the 'other services' option. More than 80 percent ATMs around the country has integrated this feature-- since the announcement of the mandate, while there are few ATMs where this facility can’t be brought in, owing to the absence of remote updating service.

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