Providing customers and employees with a single trusted identity has the potential to radically alter the customer experience. Today we will look at the role of PKI in trusted identities.

 

PKI, trusted identities and banks

During March, LAWtrust published a series of articles that discussed some of the more complicated elements of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). Today we will look at the role that PKI plays in enabling trusted digital identities.

Introduction

Identity verification plays an important role in many industries, especially the financial industry. In the digital age, banks are changing the way they are interacting with clients and staff, changing the way they manage identities.

PKI is a fundamental part of many trusted identity systems. It supports identity management for entities internal and external to the bank or financial institution.

A good PKI solution will provide many identity management services to a bank. Here are a few examples:

• Digital signing: Digital signing allows banks to sign internal and external documents with high trust digital signatures. The signatures will protect document integrity and identify the signers of the document.
• Transaction signing: The same as digital signing, PKI can protect transactions against tampering and provide non-reputable evidence of the identity of the signer.
• Email protection: S/MIME for email will protect emails between senders and receivers.

There are many channels for users, specifically clients, to interact with a bank. Unfortunately, the client will have to create a digital identity for each channel they want to use.

The next step in the evolution of PKI inside banking is to provide customers with one identity that is available on all channels.

One trusted identity 

Customer satisfaction can help an organisation stay competitive (and possibly grow their customer base).

Providing customers with a single digital identity, that can authenticate them on any channel, from the device of their choice, will not only increase customer satisfaction but help build customer trust and confidence.

 

Users around the world are more connected than ever before. They require access and control to their information in such a way that it does not interfere with their lives.

It is therefore important that a financial institution can provide a solution that will enable – not interfere with - users.

Want more information on trusted identities? Contact LAWtrust today for a consultation.