Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday highlighted the critical role of cooperative banks in safeguarding India’s financial system from cyber-enabled fraud, calling for swift adoption of advanced technological tools to prevent the misuse of banking channels.
Delivering the keynote address at the National Conference on “Tackling Cyber-Enabled Frauds and Dismantling the Ecosystem” in New Delhi, Shah said cooperative institutions must be fully integrated into the country’s cybercrime response framework to ensure comprehensive consumer protection.
The Minister informed that as of December 31, 2025, around 62 banks and financial institutions have already been onboarded onto the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) framework. He added that the Ministry of Home Affairs has set a clear and time-bound target to bring all banks and financial institutions, including State and Urban Cooperative Banks, under the I4C system by December 2026.
According to Shah, unified participation is essential to track, prevent and respond effectively to cyber-enabled financial crimes that often operate across institutions and jurisdictions.
Emphasising prevention as the most effective strategy, Shah urged all public sector, private sector and cooperative banks to immediately adopt the Mule Account Hunter software. The software has been jointly developed by the Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India to identify and flag mule accounts that are frequently used as conduits for cyber fraud, money laundering and other illicit financial activities.
He cautioned that unless banks comprehensively cleanse their systems of mule accounts using this technology, it would be impossible to achieve complete protection for consumers against cyber fraud.
Shah noted that cooperative banks, given their deep grassroots presence and extensive customer base, play a particularly important role in ensuring financial security at the local level.
He said strengthening cyber hygiene and technological capabilities in the cooperative banking sector would significantly reduce the vulnerability of rural and semi-urban customers, who are often targeted by cybercriminals due to limited awareness and access to digital safeguards.
Highlighting the scale and growing complexity of cybercrime in the country, the Minister said the I4C portal has emerged as a crucial national platform for reporting and addressing cyber offences. Between January 2020 and November 2025, the portal recorded over 230 million visits and registered more than 8.2 million cybercrime complaints. He noted that a large number of these cases were effectively resolved through coordinated action involving law enforcement agencies, financial institutions and technology platforms.
The conference brought together key stakeholders from across the cooperative banking ecosystem, with participation from 49 delegates representing State Cooperative Banks and 19 delegates from Urban Cooperative Banks and related institutions. The gathering focused on strengthening inter-institutional coordination, sharing best practices and building capacity to dismantle the infrastructure that enables cyber fraud.
Shah reiterated that protecting citizens from cyber-enabled financial crimes is a shared responsibility and stressed that technology-driven cooperation between banks, regulators and enforcement agencies is vital to staying ahead of evolving threats.