ABA Offers Identity Validation Certificates

The American Bankers Association is taking advantage of the legislation President Clinton signed by partnering with Digital Signature Trust to offer financial institutions a service that authenticates identification using digital certificates.

The TrustID certificate program, which is sponsored by ABA, provides individuals and businesses with a credentials tool similar to a driver's license or passport that can be used via the Internet for identification. The program is available at three levels: personal certificates that authenticate individuals, business certificates that authenticate that an individual is an employee of a valid business, and server certificates that authenticate a Web site or internally deployed server.

Financial institutions can either serve as the party that issues the identity validation or offer the certificates using Digital Signature Trust to handle identification.

The certificates can be used for access control, secure e-mail, distribution of documents with high sensitivity such as loan documents and bank statements, and for other purposes.

Copyright © 2000 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 10, No. 8, 8/00