- To combat the increasing number of digital payment frauds, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to operationalise the ‘.
- The ‘.in’ is India’s Country Code Top Level domain (ccTLD).
- This exclusive internet domain for domestic banks will minimise cyber security threats and will help in strengthening trust in the country’s digital banking and payment services.
- The RBI has asked banks to migrate to .bank.in domain by October 31, 2025.
- Migration to ‘.bank.in’ domain In February this year, the RBI announced the introduction of the ‘bank.in’, an exclusive internet domain for Indian banks.
To combat the increasing number of digital payment frauds, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to operationalise the ‘. bank.in’ domain for banks. The ‘.in’ is India’s Country Code Top Level domain (ccTLD). This exclusive internet domain for domestic banks will minimise cyber security threats and will help in strengthening trust in the country’s digital banking and payment services. The RBI has asked banks to migrate to .bank.in domain by October 31, 2025.
Migration to ‘.bank.in’ domain
In February this year, the RBI announced the introduction of the ‘bank.in’, an exclusive internet domain for Indian banks. On Tuesday, the regulator decided to operationalise the ‘. bank.in’ domain for banks.
A domain name is used to find websites. It is a unique and easy-to-remember address to access websites on the internet.
The operationalisation of the new internet domain name is through the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), which has been authorised by the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), under the aegis of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), to serve as the exclusive registrar for this domain, the RBI said.
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The RBI has asked all banks to commence the migration of their existing domains to the ‘.bank.in’ domain and complete the process by October 31, 2025.
NIXI is a not for profit organisation set up for peering of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) among themselves for the purpose of routing the domestic traffic within the country, instead of taking it all the way to US/abroad, thereby resulting in better quality of service and reduced bandwidth charges for ISPs by saving on international bandwidth.
The ‘.IN’ domain is India’s own ccTLD, which is a two-letter string (eg: https://www.india.gov.in or) added at the end of a domain name. A ccTLD functions as more than just a string in a web address. It is considered a symbol of national identity on the global internet.
What does this mean?
With the migration to the new domain, all banks in the country will have ‘.bank.in’ as the domain name. Currently, banks are either using ‘.com’ or ‘.co.in’ as their domain name, which is more generic.
“Once the migration is done, customers should ensure that if they are visiting a bank website, the domain should be ‘.bank.in’. And, in case they receive a mail from their bank with a domain ending in ‘.bank.in’, it can be considered genuine,” said a chief technology officer (CTO) of a large bank.
“Increased instances of fraud in digital payments are a significant concern. To combat the same, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is introducing the ‘bank.in’ exclusive Internet Domain for Indian banks,” RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra had said while announcing the February 2025 monetary policy.
“Now with operationalisation of ‘.bank.in’ domain name, it would be difficult for any entity, except RBI-regulated banks, to register with ‘.bank.in’. This will help in reducing the number of digital frauds using a bank’s website,” the banker said.
The new internet domain will reduce cybersecurity threats and malicious activities like phishing and streamline secure financial services, thereby enhancing trust in digital banking and payment services.
Migration to the ‘.bank.in” domain
Though there is time on hand but banks should make the change as soon as possible so that they have enough time to communicate with the customers and also ensure that their indexed pages on Google and other search engines are properly redirected without impacting the page rank on google.
The Team at Cleuz has geared up to help the co-operative banks to make this transition smoothly. Do get in touch with the team by emailing contact@cleuz.com for a prompt and efficient migration solution.