If you’ve ever gotten a call from “your bank” that turned out to be some scammer in a basement halfway around the world, you know exactly why this matters.
The Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC) just joined forces with a dozen other financial trade groups to tell the FCC: we need stronger rules to stop these bad actors from spoofing legitimate caller IDs.
Here’s the situation. The Federal Communications Commission recently proposed updates to something called “know-your-upstream provider” requirements (KYUP for short—because government agencies love their acronyms). They’re also looking to beef up the STIR/SHAKEN framework, which is the techy authentication system that’s supposed to verify caller IDs are legit.
The coalition responding to the FCC reads like a who’s who of the financial world: the American Bankers Association, ACA International, American Financial Services Association, America’s Credit Unions, Bank Policy Institute, Consumer Bankers Association, and several others all threw their weight behind these proposed changes.
And they’ve got the numbers to back up why this is urgent. The Federal Trade Commission dropped a bombshell in their December 2025 report: fraud and scam losses hit a jaw-dropping $196 billion in 2024. Yes, billion with a B. Another report found that 15.1 million Americans—roughly 6% of all U.S. adults—got scammed out of money in 2025 alone.
“Banks, credit unions, and other financial service providers see firsthand the enormous harm caused by criminals who impersonate trusted financial institutions in illegally ‘spoofed’ calls to consumers and businesses,” the coalition stated.
So what are they asking for? Two main things:
- Tougher requirements for assigning A-Level and B-Level attestation (basically trust scores for calls) to stop shady providers from slapping “verified” labels on scam calls
- Specific KYUP requirements that force telecom providers to actually know, verify, monitor, and take action based on information about who’s sending calls through their networks
Think of it like this: right now, some phone service providers are basically letting anyone walk through their front door without checking ID. The proposed rules would require them to actually vet who they’re doing business with.
The coalition wrapped up their comments with a clear message: “By adopting these proposed revisions, the Commission can reduce consumer harm, improve accountability across the voice ecosystem, strengthen the value of caller ID authentication, and better protect consumers and legitimate businesses from impersonation scams and other types of fraud.”
Translation? Let’s make it harder for the bad guys to pretend they’re the good guys. Given the scale of the problem, that seems like a pretty reasonable ask.
Financial Groups Team Up to Fight Back Against Scam Callers (And Yes, It’s About Time)
If you’ve ever gotten a call from “your bank” that turned out to be some scammer in a basement halfway around the world, you know exactly why this matters.
The Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC) just joined forces with a dozen other financial trade groups to tell the FCC: we need stronger rules to stop these bad actors from spoofing legitimate caller IDs.
Here’s the situation. The Federal Communications Commission recently proposed updates to something called “know-your-upstream provider” requirements (KYUP for short—because government agencies love their acronyms). They’re also looking to beef up the STIR/SHAKEN framework, which is the techy authentication system that’s supposed to verify caller IDs are legit.
The coalition responding to the FCC reads like a who’s who of the financial world: the American Bankers Association, ACA International, American Financial Services Association, America’s Credit Unions, Bank Policy Institute, Consumer Bankers Association, and several others all threw their weight behind these proposed changes.
And they’ve got the numbers to back up why this is urgent. The Federal Trade Commission dropped a bombshell in their December 2025 report: fraud and scam losses hit a jaw-dropping $196 billion in 2024. Yes, billion with a B. Another report found that 15.1 million Americans—roughly 6% of all U.S. adults—got scammed out of money in 2025 alone.
“Banks, credit unions, and other financial service providers see firsthand the enormous harm caused by criminals who impersonate trusted financial institutions in illegally ‘spoofed’ calls to consumers and businesses,” the coalition stated.
So what are they asking for? Two main things:
Think of it like this: right now, some phone service providers are basically letting anyone walk through their front door without checking ID. The proposed rules would require them to actually vet who they’re doing business with.
The coalition wrapped up their comments with a clear message: “By adopting these proposed revisions, the Commission can reduce consumer harm, improve accountability across the voice ecosystem, strengthen the value of caller ID authentication, and better protect consumers and legitimate businesses from impersonation scams and other types of fraud.”
Translation? Let’s make it harder for the bad guys to pretend they’re the good guys. Given the scale of the problem, that seems like a pretty reasonable ask.