Allied Irish Bank is rolling out two-factor authentication technology developed by e-security outfit Vasco to provide commercial and business customers in the UK and Ireland with secure access to online banking services.
AIB will use the vendor's Alphanumeric Digipass 550 systrm and Vacman server to secure its corporate and business Internet banking services.
Vasco says AIB will be the first financial institution to use its new alphanumeric Digipass, which generates single-use passwords and e-signatures containing both numeric and alpha characters.
To access accounts, customers will be able to use a Digipass-generated one-time password. Transactions will be secured using elements of the customer's account number and the beneficiary BIC or sort code, including alphanumeric characters. Based on these details, Digipass 550 will generate a transaction data signature, which will be validated by Vasco's Vacman server.
Jan Valcke, Vasco's president and COO, says the alphanumeric Digipass system was developed in partnership with AIB.
"This partnership approach is one of the strongest assets of Vasco and will lead to a more secure Internet environment for AIB's customers," adds Valcke.
Commenting on the technology, Seán Jevens, head of e-channel development at AIB, says: "Our customers' security is of paramount importance to AIB, however the collective challenge we faced was to ensure we employed a solution which would also be in line with Sepa (Single Euro Payments Area)."