Finextra: E*Trade Financial to introduce two-factor authentication E*Trade Financial has become the latest US financial institution to announce a move to two-factor authentication for customers transacting over the Web. Available in Q2 2005, the new security system uses a small RSA token device to provide customers with a random, six-digit code that changes every 60 seconds. The code is used in conjunction with standard password-based access control measures to offer an additional layer of security to customers. Lou Klobuchar, president, E*Trade Financial Services, comments: “We are now making available to retail customers an additional and voluntary layer of password security … Continue reading E*Trade Financial to introduce two-factor authentication

Finextra: SMS text authentication a hit down under

New Zealand’s ASB Bank says over 19,000 customers have registered to use its Netcode SMS authentication system for transacting over the Internet since the service was launched in December 2004.

Registered Netcode users are texted a code when they carry out applicable transactions, which they must enter online to validate their identification. Netcode was developed with RSA Security and with the endorsement of the New Zealand Police E-Crime Laboratory.

Clayton Wakefield, head of technology, operations and cards at ASB says: “Our experience is very positive and we believe we have achieved a balance between the current risk of fraud, the cost of the service and inconvenience of providing an additional step in the online banking process. The reaction from customers and appetite for this type of solution has been excellent, so much so that we are trialing additional security systems as a complement to Netcode.”
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Finextra: European banks to increase IT spending on e-banking

European banks are set to spend $3 billion on Internet banking technology by 2008, according to research by Datamonitor.

According to the study, 2005 will see banks entering the e-banking platform upgrade cycle as they will look to improve the functionality and usability of Web sites and enhance integration with other channels.
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Finextra: analysis – Net threat

The Internet threat to the traditional banking business seemed to have dissipated with the dot com collapse of five years ago. The online space – once the preserve of new-fangled business ventures with outlandish names – has since been colonised by established brands.
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Fortune 75 – Make Better Decisions! – FORTUNE – Page

Nine decision-making pitfalls—and nine simple devices to beat them.
By Michael Useem and Jerry Useem
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eBay | Anniversary lessons from eBay | Economist.com

Jun 9th 2005
From The Economist print edition

A lot can be learnt from one of the most successful companies on the internet

TEN years ago, Pierre Omidyar, a software engineer working in California’s Silicon Valley, began thinking about how to use the internet for a trading system in which buyers and sellers could establish a genuine market price. Over a long holiday weekend he wrote the computer code. At first, a trickle of users arrived at his website including his girlfriend, who traded PEZ candy dispensers. By the end of 1995, several thousand auctions had been completed and interest in eBay was growing. And it grew and grew (see article). From this modest beginning, eBay has become a global giant, with around 150m registered users worldwide who are set to buy and sell goods worth more than $40 billion this year.
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Britain, UK news from The Times and The Sunday Times – Times Online

By Helen Nugent and Ben Hoyle

DON’T blame it on the sunshine, don’t blame it on the moonlight, don’t blame it on the good times — blame it on the size of your overdraft limit.
Continue reading “Money, money, money. A bank that makes its customers listen”

Finextra: comment – What goes around comes around

Fifteen years ago, the hot topic on everyone’s agenda was Business Process Re-engineering. A decade and a half later it’s back on the agenda big time. Is this because no-one got it right the first time, asks Chris Skinner.
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Globetechnology: Debit card fraud more widespread than banks believe

By SANDRA CORDON

Monday, June 6, 2005 Updated at 8:50 AM EDT

Canadian Press

OTTAWA — An unexpectedly large percentage of Canadians say they’ve been victims of debit card fraud and many complain their bank hasn’t been much help, according to a poll done for the federal government.
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Finextra: Hong Kong banks to introduce two-factor authentication for online transactions Banks in Hong Kong are set to introduce two-factor authentication services to the country’s 2.7 million Internet banking customers next month. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said last year that banks will be required to introduce two-factor authentication for online transactions by June 2005. Individual banks can choose whether to provide Web banking customers with digital certificates, single-use passwords or SMS-based text authentication services, which will be used in addition to usernames and passwords. William Ryback, deputy chief executive, HKMA, says: “We believe that this is an effective … Continue reading Hong Kong banks to introduce two-factor authentication for online transactions