Lloyds TSB has declared pilot trials of a keyring-sized access code device for authenticating Web banking customers an unqualified success, but the UK bank says it has no immediate plans for a large-scale roll-out of the technology.
In October 2005, Lloyds TSB began trialling the Vasco-supplied device which generates a unique, one time only, six digit number that customers enter when they log on to the Internet banking site. The bank says the response from customers has been "hugely positive", and that none of the 23,500 account holders who took part in the trial have reported any fraud on their accounts.
A spokesperson for the bank insists that the sample size is statistically significant, indicating the extent of the phishing fraud problem facing the bank.
Nearly three quarters of people (70 per cent) taking part in the trial rated the device as excellent or very good. Ninety-five per cent said that they found the technology easy to use.
Yet despite the feedback, the bank has no plans to introduce the service across its accounts. The spokesperson says that the bank is awaiting guidance from UK payments body Apacs on plans for an industry standard card-reading system.
High street rival Alliance & Leicester last week said it would introduce a form of two-factor authentication across all of its Internet accounts sometime this month. The UK bank has yet to reveal any details of the new system.