Safer financial websites coming

Soon, you’ll be able to go to sites ending in .bank and .insurance – and they’ll be safer than many .com and .ca sites.

The American Bankers Association (ABA) and The Financial Services Roundtable have applied to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to operate these two generic top-level domains on behalf of the financial services industry.

The ABA made the move due to the escalating dangers of online fraud; over the past few years, an increasing number of scammers have used tricks like phishing and account takeovers.

An Information Security Media survey, called The 2010 Faces of Fraud Survey, found many banks and financial institutions are still ill-equipped to combat new threats, which are created daily due to the rapid production of social media tools and online apps. The excitement caused by new launches and hot products easily clouds potential victims’ judgement, and makes them ripe for the picking for fraudsters.

Read: Know your cyber criminals

“Secure online systems are essential for a healthy global financial system,” says Craig Schwartz, head of operations for the ABA and Roundtable effort.

The new domains will adhere to strict security standards, and any new financially oriented domains (e.g. .mortgage) will be required to also provide heightened security.

Doug Johnson, ABA vice president of risk management, says any new financial domains and online efforts initiated from this point forward must be completely secure and carefully implemented. Investor and consumer confidence has tanked since the recession—due to global economic issues, fraud and tough markets—and must be restored.

Read: Clients come first: CFA and How to help clients hold on, for tips on how to relate to anxious clients

“An influx of new domains creates a more complex online environment, so the industry must be united in its effort to ensure consumers know where to go and who they are dealing with,” says Paul Smocer, president of BITS, the technology policy division of the Roundtable.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.