Finland-based Meridea has introduced a two factor authentication system that operates via a customer's mobile phone.
Meridea says its Intelligent Authentication software is delivered to a user's mobile device using 'over-the-air' technology. Customers are presented with the transaction amount and destination account number on their phone prior to confirming transactions online.
Jukka Riivari, CEO and President of Meridea comments: "For banks, it combines the manageability of 'out-of-band' or offline authentication mechanisms with the security normally associated with a hardware token.
"For the customer, it is simple, intuitive and provides real peace of mind as they can be sure that what they believe they have authorized is exactly what's going to happen."
Riivari says the mobile authentication system requires customers to confirm an actual payment amount and desitination, unlike hardware tokens and indexed TAN lists which can be used to validate a transaction which can be altered on the way to or from the bank.
Helsinki-based Meridea was set up by Finnish financial services group Sampo, Nokia, Accenture and venture capitalist 3i, in 2001 to sell m-banking applications to third party banks.