Secure your trades: Sebi pushes SIM-bound authentication

The market regulator has proposed linking trading accounts with SIM cards and making biometric authentication mandatory to enhance security in online trading and protect investors from unauthorized transactions.

- Neha Joshi

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) acknowledged that with the rapid evolution of technology and the increasing use of web-based and mobile platforms for trading, incidents of hacking, identity theft, and fraud have become more frequent. The regulator flagged a rise in cases of unauthorized access to accounts, SIM card spoofing to divert one-time passwords, and other security breaches.

The regulator set up a working group to address these issues and came out with a consultation paper seeking a multifaceted framework to improve the security of trading accounts through advanced authentication measures.