Banks can apply for identifying SMS codes next month

Private banks from next month could apply to acquire their own short message service (SMS) codes amid an increase in fraudulent messages sent by people pretending to be from financial institutions, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.

The commission recently met with Taiwan’s three largest telecoms to discuss the possibility after the Ministry of Digital Affairs in September last year created the SMS code “111” to identify messages distributed by government-run agencies, including state-run banks, in response to fraudulent messages claiming to be from government agencies.

Lawmakers this week asked whether private banks could also apply to have specific SMS codes to help them tackle fraudulent text messages.

“The commission’s position is that private banks can decide whether they want to have their own SMS codes. It should not be a mandate. The commission would be a bridge between the private banks and telecoms, and we would not intervene in their negotiations over details such as the price of distributing text messages,” NCC Vice Chairman and spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said.

In a meeting with NCC officials, representatives of the three telecoms and SMS distributors reached a preliminary agreement that SMS codes for private banks would consist of five digits: the number 68 and their three-digit bank codes, Wong said.

For example, the bank code for Taipei Fubon Bank is 012, and the SMS code for text messages sent by the bank could be 68012, he said.

“We still need to listen to input from telecoms, the Financial Supervisory Commission, the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the Bankers Association [of the Republic of China],” Wong said, adding that a trial run could be conducted next month.

SMS codes that private banks used would be their one and only number and could not be modified or distributed via nonrelevant third parties, Wong added.