A day after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said major banks and big telemarketers have failed to adopt regulations aimed at checking pesky SMSes, the insurance regulator on Wednesday asked all insurers to register the templates of their messages with their respective telecom service providers by 5 April.

Trai on Tuesday had asked all entities, using the telecom resources to send bulk messages to the consumers, to fulfill the regulatory requirements immediately so that there would not be any disruption in communication to customers.

Following up on Trai’s notification, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) in a circular on Tuesday said: “Insurers are hereby directed to register their templates of the messages with their respective telecom service providers in controlling unsolicited calls, including fraudulent calls and messages from insurers to the policyholders."

In July 2018, Trai had notified regulatory framework for unsolicited commercial calls and messages which requires entities, 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. The rules also mandated telcos to verify the content of every SMS with the registered text before delivering it to consumers.

According to Irdai, the new framework will enable policyholder protection and in the interest of the public from fraudsters using fake identities as insurers. “Also, Trai has indicated that the non-adoption of its new procedures would result in disruption of delivery of messages to the policyholders," Irdai added.

The Trai’s regulatory provisions not only help in preventing spam but also help in preventing fraudulent messages purporting to originate from banks, financial institutions, or other trusted sources. It also helps the entities to enhance its reach by registering the consent of the customers.

The insurance companies have been directed to complete the template registrations with their respective telecom service providers as per the framework and confirm compliance of this direction to Irdai by email on or before 5 April.

Source: Live Mint