Most banks and insurance companies are confident that customers will not face troubles once the new SMS scrubbing rules come into play, unlike the last time when users faced massive disruptions.

“Even when the new rules came into play last time, the issues were resolved by the end of the day. We are hopeful that customers will not have a problem this time,” said an executive with a private sector lender.

Another lender expressed confidence that this time around messages such as OTPs will not be impacted as these have already been whitelisted. “The expectation is of little or no disruption to customers this time,” he said.

Most insurance companies too said they are ready for the new SMS regulations that are aimed at curbing fraudulent and spam messages.

Significantly, insurance regulator IRDAI had also directed insurers to complete the template registrations with their respective telecom service providers as per the TRAI framework and confirm their compliance by April 5.

“In July 2018, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) notified the regulatory framework for unsolicited commercial calls and messages which requires Principal entities (PE) including Insurers to register with their respective telecom service providers, to be allotted a header along with their identity for proper identification of all messages and voice calls,” IRDAI said in the circular.

TRAI has set March 31 as the deadline for banks to comply with norms for bulk SMS.

Last week, it had released a list of 40 “defaulter” principal entities, including large banks such as HDFC Bank, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank, that are not fulfilling the regulatory norms on bulk commercial messages despite repeated reminders.

The guidelines had initially come into effect in early March but were suspended by TRAI as customers faced significant problems and delays in generating one time passwords through SMS for banking transactions.

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