As digital payments become a part of everyday life, every transaction carries an invisible question: can it be trusted? With rising cyber threats and data risks, ensuring the safety of financial systems is no longer just a technical need. It is essential to protecting people, businesses, and the economy. At IIT Bombay, a new initiative is working to build that trust from the ground up.

The IIT Bombay – Mphasis AI and Cybersecurity Research Co-Lab for Financial Service in Privacy-Enabled Technology for Security in Finance, established at the IITB TRUST Lab with support from the Mphasis F1 Foundation, is focused on making digital finance safer and more reliable. In its early phase, the partnership has already moved from vision to action—setting up a dedicated research space and conducting two industry workshops in Mumbai and Delhi that trained 50 BFSI professionals on real world challenges such as fraud and data protection.

These efforts have also sparked meaningful collaborations. Partnerships with institutions like RBL Bank, IFTAS, and C-DAC Pune are helping align research with real industry needs—ensuring that solutions are not just theoretical, but practical and deployable.

As the collaboration grows, it aims to train over 100 professionals and students in advanced cybersecurity, while developing 3 Proofs of Concept (POCs) and 10 papers on applied research solutions to address emerging financial threats.

Secure Financial Ecosystem

By strengthening collaboration across academia, industry, and policy, it also has the potential to support a more secure digital ecosystem for 15+ institutions across the country.

What makes this initiative powerful is its focus on both knowledge and application—building skills, developing solutions, and creating a shared understanding of security challenges.

It is this blend of research, collaboration, and real-world relevance that defines IIT Bombay’s approach—where innovation does not just enable digital growth, but ensures that it is built on a foundation of trust.