Citi's Global Transaction Services Achieves PIV-I Cross-Certification with CertiPath

NEW YORK and HERNDON, Va., April 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As the call for the adoption of PIV-I (Personal Identification Verification-Interoperability) credentials grows, CertiPath and Citi's Global Transaction Services today announced that Citi has successfully completed cross-certification to the PIV-I standard via the CertiPath identity bridge.

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The news comes as there is a growing need for non-Executive Branch federal employees, customers and partners, first responders, and state and local officials to gain access to facilities and systems, to which they have explicitly been authorized access, using their own, single identity credential. At the federal level, this need translates into increased pressure on agencies to demonstrate and execute concrete plans of action for rolling out these credentials now, articulated by the Office of Management and Budget Memo 11-11, which specifically ties future information technology funding to compliance with the standards defined by the Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management Roadmap.

In 2009, the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security estimated there were 25.3 million first responders who might require PIV-I credentials. Adding to that number is the growing list of employees who "hotel" at various employer sites, as well as consultants, contractors and visitors who may need access for days or for months to complete a project. Credentialing these individuals requires a credential issuer that has successfully demonstrated high-volume, reliable identity assurance processes and practices.

CertiPath, the trusted credentialing authority, is the U.S. Federal PKI Policy Authority partner in testing PIV-I credentials, used for both physical and logical access. CertiPath introduced the architecture and operational systems for a single credential that can provide secure access and interoperability for employees, customers and partners in 2009. It now applies that experience and expertise to vet and validate that issuers' credentials meet the PIV-I standard.

"As we've built out the use cases for PIV-I credentials within the supply chain, we're seeing a lot of pent-up demand," said Jeff Nigriny, CEO and president of CertiPath. "Citi brings the operational excellence, rigorous processes and the proven ability to repeat and scale necessary to meet the need with the highest levels of integrity."  

Global, Scalable Identity Management

A member of the CertiPath community since 2009, Citi is the first company to be cross-certified by CertiPath to PIV-I. As a PIV-I issuer, Citi's Global Transaction Services brings its vast experience in ensuring levels of trust in transactions through its policies and procedures such as Citi's "Customer Identification Program" used for establishing and verifying the identity of each "customer" having a formal relationship with the bank. Citi is continuously evolving its processes and systems for ensuring trusted identities based on extremely rigorous requirements for its broad base of global corporate, public sector and consumer clients.  

"Our customers in national and local government, as well commercial organizations around the world rely on us to provide the trusted identities that make it possible for them to do business online, across the street and around the world, securely and reliably," said Gary Schneider, Public Sector Product Management with Citi's Global Transaction Services. "PIV-I represents a breakthrough in how business gets done across multiple stakeholders and we're extremely pleased to bring our expertise in high-assurance identity management to accelerate the adoption and bring it mainstream."

Global Transaction Services, a division of Citi's Institutional Clients Group, offers integrated cash management, trade, and securities and fund services to multinational corporations, financial institutions and public sector organizations around the world. With a network that spans more than 100 countries, Citi's Global Transaction Services supports over 65,000 clients. As of the first quarter of 2011, it held on average $355 billion in liability balances and $13.0 trillion in assets under custody.

About Citi

Citi, the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Through Citicorp and Citi Holdings, Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com or www.citi.com.

About CertiPath

CertiPath is the trusted authority for interoperable identities for collaboration in the aerospace and defense industry. Advancing the use of PKI-based high assurance credentials for both physical and logical access and control, CertiPath tears down the burdensome and costly company, employee and program-centric approaches to identity assurance.

CertiPath is trusted by more than four million public and private sector users and leverages a turnkey approach that delivers robust, cost-effective and proven physical and logical asset protection. Today, organizations in the U.S., U.K. and Europe including Boeing, BAE Systems, Citibank N.A., EADS, Exostar, Lockheed Martin, Northrop-Grumman, Raytheon, SITA and the U.S. Federal Bridge (FBCA) are members of this fast-growing community. For more information, visit CertiPath on the web at http://www.certipath.com

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SOURCE CertiPath