Urge the FCC to Strengthen Caller Verification Standards

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed meaningful steps to combat fraud from illegally “spoofed” calls—i.e., calls that appear to come from a bank or other legitimate company but are actually from criminals.

We ask that bankers write to the FCC and urge the agency to finalize its proposal to require originating voice service providers to implement stronger “know your customer” standards, including verifying the identity and legitimacy of customers before allowing them to place large volumes of calls, so that bad actors are prevented from accessing U.S. telecommunications networks.

Banks are required to verify customer identities, but many voice service providers are not held to equivalent standards. As a result, fraudsters can use provider networks to impersonate legitimate businesses and gain consumers’ trust. The FCC is considering whether to require originating providers to better verify their customers before allowing large volumes of calls on their networks. This could include collecting a customer’s name, physical address, alternate phone number, business records, and the purpose of the calls.

If finalized, this proposal would help stop bad actors from exploiting our nation’s telecommunications network due to weak oversight by originating providers. As voice service providers will likely push back on stronger requirements, we ask banks to write to the FCC to ensure that the agency adopts more stringent customer verification standards.

To file a comment, follow these steps:

  1. Use this link:  https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/express
  2. Under “Proceeding,” insert these numbers: 17-59 and 02-278
  3. Enter the rest of the information about the comment author that the form requests.
  4. Under “Brief Comments,” express your support for the FCC to impose strong “know your customer” requirements on originating voice service providers. You could use the below template.

The FCC has a reply comment deadline of July 27.  

If you have any questions, please contact ABA’s Jonathan Thessin (202-663-5016; jthessin@aba.com). Thank you for your advocacy on behalf of the banking industry.

Draft Template for Comment to FCC

Fraud is a pervasive problem that causes significant financial and emotional harm to consumers. The financial services industry spends billions each year to protect against fraud, investigate suspicious activity, and help customers recover their money. But banks cannot do this alone. We urge the FCC to impose stronger “know your customer” requirements on originating voice service providers. Today, some bad-actor callers are able to place millions of illegal calls because  originating providers do not properly vet them. 

[Provide an example of how bad actors impersonated your bank through illegally spoofed calls. Please note that comments submitted to the FCC will be publicly available, so you may wish to keep examples at a high level and avoid including sensitive or confidential details.]

Strong KYC requirements will ensure all originating providers properly verify their customers and keep bad actors off the U.S. telecommunications network.