Lloyds TSB woos business users with PKI

Lloyds TSB is to offer smart card technology to business users this summer, and could extend the scheme to online customers within a year. The initiative will be the highest-profile use of public key infrastructure (PKI) technology seen in the UK.

Sam Rushton, programme manager of key online banking at Lloyds TSB, told Computing that the biggest test will be compatibility with customers' own systems.

"Having fixed the problems of PKI in our back office, we now need to provide some security software on the client side. Getting the software to work across the very wide range of systems our customers operate, some of which can be pretty old, is going to be quite a challenge," she said.

Schlumberger will supply customers with the kit to use the service. It will include a smart card, smart card reader and a CDRom with Entrust PKI software. Talks are already taking place to extend the scheme to the bank's retail customer base.

"A lot of customers are happy with user name and password as a security option. But for those customers who want added security we are hoping to make this sort of service available to them within the next year," said Rushton.

The project will start with 10 business customers, increasing to about 300 before the live launch this summer. Rushton explained that customer research has shown that about three quarters of the bank's 700,000 business customers would like to use the service because of the extra security.

It is more cost efficient for banks if customers perform transactions over the internet, and security will encourage them to do so, said Rushton.

But analysts have queried the cost, complexity and interoperability of PKI implementations.

"We are actively negotiating with Identrus and all of the other banks to move towards a common platform for PKI. What we have built so far is adaptable, so once a common platform is agreed we can move to it relatively easily," said Rushton.

First published in Computing