In order to tackle the rising cyber security frauds, RBI has announced exclusive Internet domain name ‘bank.in’ for banks and ‘fin.in’ for non-bank financial entities
In an attempt to combat rising instances of cyber fraud in the financial sector, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on February 7, 2025 announced an exclusive internet domain name ‘bank.in’ for banks and ‘fin.in’ for non-banking financial entities. The registrations for ‘bank.in’ domain will start from April 2025, and registrations for ‘fin.in’ will follow after that, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said after the conclusion of the monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting.
“The Reserve Bank shall implement the ‘bank.in’ exclusive Internet domain for Indian banks. This will be followed by the ‘fin.in’ domain for the financial sector,” RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said at the conclusion of the three-day MPC meeting.
Malhotra said the move is aimed at enhancing trust in the financial sector. He added that increased cases of fraud in digital payments are a major concern.
This initiative will be overseen by the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) and is aimed at reducing cyber security threats and malicious activities, such as phishing, while simultaneously streamlining secure financial services and enhancing trust in digital banking and payment services.
Earlier in the day, the RBI’s rate-setting panel announced a 25 basis point (bps) reduction in the repo rate, lowering it to 6.25 per cent.
This is the first time in nearly five years that the MPC has cut the repo rate. Last time, the rate cut happened in May 2020, when the RBI MPC had cut the repo rate by 40 bps to 4 per cent in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Later, RBI started raising rates in May 2022 and paused it in May 2023. Since then, the central bank’s rate-setting panel had maintained the status quo, until now.
Consequently, the standing deposit facility (SDF) rate has been adjusted to 6 per cent and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and bank rate to 6.50 per cent.
The RBI announced that it will continue with the neutral monetary policy stance and focus on achieving a durable alignment of inflation with the target, while supporting growth.
The MPC forecast India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth for FY26 at 6.7 per cent. In the previous meeting in December 2024, the then RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had projected a growth rate of 6.6 per cent for the current fiscal year.
For the next fiscal year, RBI expects economic growth across the four quarters to be 6.7 per cent, 7 per cent, 6.5 per cent and 6.5 per cent, respectively, with the risks evenly balanced.