The American Bankers Association today expressed strong support for the Federal Communications Commission’s proposal to impose specific “know your customer” requirements on voice service providers that originate calls — that is, to require originating providers to collect a robust set of information from business callers before allowing the caller access to the provider’s network. Ten other financial trade associations joined ABA in submitting the comment.
In January, ABA urged the FCC to specify steps that voice service providers must take to prevent bad actors from originating fraudulent calls. ABA shared an analysis of call records that identified an originating provider that opened for business in July 2025 and, within two months, originated more than 136 million calls in a single month on its network. Further analysis showed that the majority of calls originated by this provider were illegal calls, demonstrating that the originating provider did not adequately investigate the companies using its network to perpetrate fraud.
“The financial services industry spends billions of dollars each year to protect consumers from fraud, investigate potential criminal activity, and help affected consumers recover their hard-earned money,” said ABA. “Strong KYC requirements will ensure all originating providers conduct meaningful diligence of callers, keeping bad-actor callers off the U.S. telecommunications network,” ABA said.
ABA agreed with the FCC that it should collect a robust set of information from business callers — including name, physical address, alternate phone number, corporate formation records and intended use of the provider’s phone service — before the provider allows the caller to originate calls on the provider’s network. ABA also urged the FCC to require originating providers to confirm that the business is bonded, to understand the product or service that the customer offers (in order to understand the customer’s purpose in seeking to place calls using the provider’s service), and to ensure that owners of the business have not previously been convicted of violating telemarketing laws. These additional steps would help ensure that only legitimate businesses have access to call networks, the association said.
ABA also expressed support for the FCC’s proposal to codify a base forfeiture amount, on a per call basis, when a provider fails to take affirmative, effective measures to prevent callers from originating illegal calls. In addition, the association urged the FCC to allocate sufficient funding and staffing to investigate and, where appropriate, initiate enforcement actions to ensure that originating providers comply with the KYC rule.
ABA also urged the FCC to initiate a rulemaking to ban the possession or supplying of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) boxes, which allow a caller to place a large number of illegal calls quickly from what appears to be separate phone numbers.
