The European Commission has accepted agreements between a number
of major European and non-European banks creating a global network
for the authentication of electronic signatures. The “Identrus”
system enables participating financial institutions to certify that
their corporate clients operate adequate security measures for
business to business (B2B) trading on-line.
According to the Identrus web site, there are currently more
than 50 financial institutions representing more than 133 different
countries involved in the scheme. The US based company Identrus
that developed the scheme was set up in April 1999 by eight
financial bodies in order to provide legal and technical solutions
to businesses interested in B2B e-commerce transactions.
In clearing the scheme for operation in the EU, the Commission
noted that it encourages participating financial institutions to
offer competitively priced and independently developed
authentication services based on the established Identus
infrastructure. It concludes that the system will not lead to any
appreciable restrictions of competition.
The Identrus site is at www.identrus.com
