Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
As a first step forward towards setting up a national common 'Do-Not-Call Registry' in India, Indian Banks' Association (IBA) and India Cards Council (ICC) facilitated by MasterCard International today issued a 'Request for Information' (RFI) for the 'Do-Not-Call Registry' initiative. The RFI invites information that may assist in the development, deployment and operation of a proposed common national registry of telephone numbers of consumers who do not wish to receive telephone calls from banking telemarketers for financial products or services. The RFI is available on the IBA website, http://www.iba.org.in.
Through the RFI, IBA and ICC seek information to determine the availability of capable service providers to set up the 'Do-Not-Call Registry'. Interested parties and stakeholders will have one month to respond to the RFI.
In compliance with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines asking each bank to set up a registry for customers who did not wish to receive tele-marketing calls from the banks, several banks set up their own systems, but customers are required to register with each bank separately. To provide consumers with a one-stop solution, MasterCard, based on its experiences in the US and Canada, proposed a Common Do-Not-Call Registry, operated on behalf of the entire banking and financial services industry. This would enable the cards industry to operate from a shared platform and ensure that a customer who registers with the common 'Do-Not-Call Registry' does not receive calls from the DSAs of all member banks.
Announcing the details on the RFI, Mr. H. N. Sinor, IBA said, "The Do-Not-Call Registry would greatly benefit consumer's privacy and their right to choose whether they wish to receive marketing enquiries through telemarketing calls on financial products offered by the Banks. Further the Do-Not-Call Registry will provide them with a platform for complaint redressal against any violations by telemarketers."
Constituents subscribing to the Do-Not-Call Registry but who do not adhere to the rules and norms will be penalized, segregating them from those who observe Do-Not-Call Registry norms, he added.
The RFI outlines five primary considerations for the success of the Do-Not-Call Registry,
-- The accuracy and validity of the consumer telephone numbers added to the registry
-- The capacity of the system to handle the potential volume of consumer requests to be placed on the registry and other requests as may be required based on the construct of the registry
-- The security of the information maintained in the registry
-- The accessibility of the registry to telemarketers and law enforcement and regulatory agents
-- The lowest possible system and operational costs.
The Do-Not-Call Registry, once in place, would allow consumers who prefer not to receive telemarketing calls relating to banks' financial services products to contact one centralized registry to effectuate this preference. Telemarketers would be required to refrain from calling consumers who have put themselves on this registry. The IBA and ICC anticipate that telemarketers would need to access the do-not-call registry on at least a fortnightly basis in order to ensure the remove from their telemarketing lists of those consumers who have placed themselves on the national registry.
For more information please contact rema@iba.org.in
Source: Indian Banks' Association (Business Wire India)
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