Scandinavian financial services group Nordea and telecommunications company Nokia have launched a pilot project in Finland to test the use of mobile chip identification in the delivery of banking services.
Under the pilot, participants receive a Nokia WAP mobile phone equipped with both a SIM card issued by the operator and a chip card issued by Nordea.
When customers want to use Nordea's banking and stock exchange services they log on and confirm orders via the chip card issued by Nordea. The WIM (wireless identity module) included in the chip card makes it possible for users to identify themselves and supply digital signatures to confirm their transactions.
Bo Harald, head of electronic banking at Nordea, says: "The chips issued by Nordea have undergone an extremely high level of safety certification, and the use of the WIM application will lead to very safe solutions because it uses chip-based secure identification and encryption."
"Dual chips will be increasingly useful in the future, when our customers begin to make larger purchases from wireless terminal devices. It also means that the phone bill needs to be differentiated from the purchases," adds Harald.