The Reserve Bank of India organised a two-day Workshop on Digital and Cyber Frauds for Executive Directors and Heads of Fraud Risk Management of 60 major banks on February 24 and 25, 2026 at its Central Office in Mumbai.
Senior representatives from the Urban Cooperative Banking sector actively participated in the deliberations. Among them were Arti Patil, CEO of Saraswat Bank; Apekshita Thipsay, CEO of COSMOS Bank; Ravinder Singh, CEO of SVC Co-operative Bank; Ravindra Hegib, Chairman, and Jagdish Kashyap, CEO of Janata Sahakari Bank Ltd; and Vidyanand S. Karkera, CEO of Bharat Co-operative Bank Mumbai Ltd, along with representatives from around nine other UCBs.
Speaking to Indian Cooperative, Jagdish Kashyap said the workshop highlighted the urgent need for banks to proactively deploy AI-based fraud monitoring tools to detect suspicious transactions at an early stage. He noted that special emphasis was laid on preventing money mule accounts, tightening scrutiny during account opening, and ensuring strict compliance with advisories issued by the RBI. He further stated that keeping the Board actively involved in fraud-risk oversight was underlined as a critical governance requirement.
Kashyap added that the sessions stressed adherence to the Supreme Court’s SOP on cyber fraud cases, strengthening staff awareness programmes, and conducting focused customer education drives. According to him, the interactive discussions enabled participating banks to share best practices and technological initiatives to tackle increasingly sophisticated digital fraud patterns.
Similarly, Vidyanand S. Karkera described the workshop as timely and useful for the cooperative banking sector. He said the overall focus remained on preventive strategies and practical precautions that banks must adopt to mitigate digital fraud risks in an evolving threat environment.
The workshop saw participation from senior officers of the RBI, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), Ministry of Home Affairs, Maharashtra Cyber Police, commercial banks and urban cooperative banks. Discussions emphasised robust governance and oversight mechanisms, strong internal controls, clearly defined processes, adoption of advanced technologies for fraud detection, and close coordination among regulators, banks and law enforcement agencies.
Select banks also shared technological measures and internal frameworks implemented to prevent and mitigate cyber-enabled frauds.
The programme concluded with an open-house discussion where participants offered feedback and suggestions. The RBI reaffirmed its commitment to continued engagement with banks and stakeholders to further strengthen the resilience and integrity of the Indian banking system, with UCBs playing a key role in safeguarding digital trust.
