ICANN Grants Financial Organizations rights to .bank Domain

ICANN, the governing body of Internet domains, has authorized fTLD Registry Services to operate the new financial top-level domain ".bank."

The fTLD Registry — founded and operated by the American Bankers Association, Financial Services Roundtable and other industry organizations — expects that the domain will be ready for use in 2015, an ABA news release said.

"Our organizations took the lead on this to ensure that the banking industry, not outsiders, would operate .bank, and that only legitimate members of the banking community could have a .bank site," said Frank Keating, ABA president and CEO.

"We took this on in order to protect the interests of our industry and preserve customers' trust in banking."

The .bank domain will maintain enhanced levels of security and adhere to 31 strict standards developed by ABA and FSR. In addition to strict registration requirements, the domain will help prevent users from being redirected to fake bank websites, help make it more difficult for criminals to create spoofed e-mails from a .bank website, and provide a higher level of encryption, among other benefits.

"Operating .bank is a key step towards providing consumers a more secure place to bank on-line, and it will be a helpful tool in better protecting personal data," said Tim Pawlenty, FSR president and CEO.

Once the .bank domain is available for registration, fTLD will provide a website to guide banks through the registration process.
 Additional information about ".bank," is available at the ABA website.