The largest mobile banking roll-out to date in the Netherlands will base its public key infrastructure (PKI) security on SchlumbergerSema's subscriber WAP identity module (SWIM). The partners responsible for this initiative, retail bank Postbank and network operator Telfort, have selected French smart card vendor SchlumbergerSema's Simera e- motion SWIM card to provide the PKI for their WAP mobile banking service.
The Simera e-motion SWIM card provides a ready-to-go solution. It is a combination of subscriber identity module (SIM) and WAP identity module (WIM) functionality. Jerome Sion, marketing manager, mobile communications, at SchlumbergerSema, explains. "What we've offered combines the traditional functionality of a SIM with the cryptographic capability of a WIM card. This has PKI security features allowing for the signing and encryption of messages.
"Traditionally, when putting SWIM into WAP handsets, you have had to wait for a new release of handsets. We have developed a SIM toolkit application which can be loaded onto a card and allows the card to communicate with the handset in a standardized manner. It means you can use all the cryptographic features in a widely available, traditional handset without having to wait for a new handset. It enables us to use the legacy system and deploy in volume."
The Java-based card provides encryption for data privacy, as well as the digital signature, which confirms the identity of the user and other data to ensure that the transaction is non-repudiable-a crucial feature for sensitive transactions. Most importantly, this SIM ToolKit application enables the use of the cryptographic features of the Simera e-motion SWIM cards, which are already deployed in widely available WAP handsets.
SchlumbergerSema says it has made about 200 SIM toolkit applications in the last three to four years. "Other card vendors are making SIM toolkits, but we are the only one to have deployed in volume. This is the first application with such a large deployment," Sion says.
Postbank has 425,000 customers using the service since its April launch, with the aim of reaching 500,000 existing customers.
The implementation of the Simera e-motion SWIM card allows Postbank customers to securely recharge their prepaid accounts and check their account balances via their mobile phones and will soon enable them to buy and sell shares. SchlumbergerSema claims the system is easy to use- the customer simply enters his or her mobile code when requested via the menu-driven user interface.
The project is focused solely on the Netherlands. According to a spokesperson at the bank, the main priority is working on getting these 500,000 customers using mobile banking, then it will look to extend the service via other telecommunications providers. At the moment the service is quite limited. Customers can request their balances and transfer money from one account to another, although Postbank intends the service to include online brokerage at some point.
"It is an important deal for us for two reasons," says Sion. "One is that we sold them 500,000 cards. It is the largest rollout using Simera e-motion SWIM. The second is that it is important for us in terms of our technology. We are working with the evolution of this offer, it is a long-term relationship and SWIM cards offer a lot of opportunities for them (Postbank and Telfort). From the start, the requirement of Postbank and Telfort was to give customers the ability to access their bank account. This was the main application they were looking for, along with the capability to reload a prepaid account. They are not using all of the applications of Simera e-motion, and could go a lot further."
SchlumbergerSema competed with all the main SIM card vendors to secure the contract. It clinched the deal by virtue of being able to provide samples of the SWIM card, Sion says.
Postbank is one of the Netherlands' largest retail banks, with some eight million customers. The bank is well used to its customers taking care of their financial matters themselves. It has a cooperation agreement with the national post office, but no local branches of its own. Its customers are familiar with conducting their banking over the Internet or telephone, and are used to doing things where they want, when they want. The mobile banking initiative is another channel through which they can arrange their finances, the spokesperson said.
According to Sion, Schlumberger has been involved in developing many m-banking applications, and there are several different examples of what can be done. Some use traditional SIM cards, as in the deal the card vendor won last February.
SchlumbergerSema, then Schlumberger Test & Transactions, was chosen as Slovakian mobile operator Eurotel Bratislava's partner to deliver a new, highly secure mobile banking service to multiple banks, based on Schlumberger Simera Java SIMs. Using this new, menu-driven service, customers of three of Slovakia's leading banks, VUB, Tatrabanka and Istrobanka, are able to review their accounts, make payments and access stock market information, whenever and wherever they wish, with complete security. All transactions are authorized by using an applet- specific PIN that users can change as required. The SIM card generates a digital signature that guarantees the authenticity of both the user and the transaction and provides non-repudiation of any payment transactions authorized through the bank.
European IT consultants International Data Corp. expect mobile banking to be the fastest growing sector of total IT spending on electronic banking, with a 1999 to 2003 compound annual growth rate of 129%. Therefore, the chances of other European mobile banking announcements are inevitable.
