Bank of New Zealand Builds on Relationship with Entrust, Adds Seamless Mobile Authentication to Consumer-Banking Applications

DALLAS, June 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of New Zealand, one of the most progressive financial institutions in the world, selects long-time partner Entrust, Inc., and the company's proven authentication framework, to embed strong authentication into the company's new line of consumer-banking applications on the Apple iOS and Google Android mobile platforms.

"Mobile devices are doing more and more heavy lifting in the digital lives of consumers — and this includes conducting highly sensitive financial transactions," said online service manager Nick Fantham, BNZ Online, Bank of New Zealand. "By embedding the security credential within the mobile application, we have maintained a high level of security and sped up the login process significantly."

An Entrust customer of six years, Bank of New Zealand now leverages the Entrust IdentityGuard authentication framework and software development kit (SDK) to deploy soft-token authentication in their line of mobile applications. The one-time passcode (OTP) authentication process takes place instantaneously and without the need for end-user interaction or involvement.

In fact, the mobile adoption is overwhelmingly successful in improving and enhancing customer engagement levels. Since launch, Bank of New Zealand has seen login volumes grow by some 250 percent — all in a very short timeframe.

"This collaboration is the result of a globally respected financial institution taking the safety of customer identities seriously — a quality they've demonstrated for years," said Entrust President and CEO Bill Conner. "By embedding strong authentication directly into their mobile-banking applications, BNZ ensures customer information and mobile transactions are properly secured."

In addition to the platform's ease of use and proven authentication capabilities, Bank of New Zealand also was drawn to maximizing the return on their initial Entrust IdentityGuard investment. The same platform BNZ deployed some six years ago has evolved ahead of malicious crime trends and will easily manage the distribution of the new soft-token technology. The framework enables organizations to layer security — according to access requirements or the risk of a given transaction — across diverse users, devices and applications.

While Bank of New Zealand's initial deployment includes soft tokens for mobile authentication, the Entrust IdentityGuard SDK includes powerful out-of-band transaction verification capabilities that can be leveraged to defeat advanced man-in-the-browser malware that targets the online channel. These Entrust IdentityGuard capabilities link cross-channel security to provide financial institutions a simple, streamlined and powerful solution that can be extended across varied channels including mobile, online, IVR and ATMs, as required.

To date, Bank of New Zealand has experienced amazing success with their NetGuard-branded grid card solution. Deployed and managed by Entrust IdentityGuard, the patented technology takes the form of a credit card-sized authenticator consisting of numbers and characters in a row-column format. Upon login, BNZ customers are presented with a coordinate challenge and must respond with the information in the corresponding cells from the unique grid card they possess.

Entrust's flagship authentication solution continues to lead the industry as one of the most robust software authentication platforms, delivering scalability, reliability and the most diverse set of authenticators supported on the market today. Entrust IdentityGuard serves as organizations' single comprehensive software-based authentication platform, while concurrently bridging them to emerging technologies for strong mobility, cloud and credentialing offerings.

Entrust's authentication capabilities include smartcards and USB tokens, soft tokens, grid cards and eGrids, IP-geolocation, questions and answers, mobile smart credentials, out-of-band one-time passcode (delivered via voice, SMS or email), and a range of one-time-passcode tokens. In addition, the Entrust IdentityGuard Self-Service Module provides a Web-based interface that allows end-users to manage many aspects of their assigned identity, freeing administrator time without compromising network security.

Founded in 1861, Bank of New Zealand employs more than 5,000 people and has 180 retail stores and Partners' Centres across New Zealand. The bank has a diversified focus in personal banking, business, institutions and investments. Their consumer arm focuses on home loans, savings, investments, transactions and insurance products.

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About Entrust
A trusted provider of identity-based security solutions, Entrust secures governments, enterprises and financial institutions in more than 5,000 organizations spanning 85 countries. Entrust's award-winning software authentication platforms manage today's most secure identity credentials, addressing customer pain points for cloud and mobile security, physical and logical access, citizen eID initiatives, certificate management and SSL. For more information about Entrust products and services, call 888-690-2424, email [email protected] or visit www.entrust.com.

Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. In Canada, Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust Limited. All Entrust product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Entrust, Inc. or Entrust Limited. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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SOURCE Entrust, Inc.