banking

The Open Bank Project is a European initiative to open up financial transactions to much larger groups of individuals and raise the bar of financial transparency. It will achieve this by allowing a diverse range of third-party software applications (including fraud analysis tools, web apps, mobile apps, social widgets and payment gateways) to access any bank account that supports the Open Bank Protocol and API.

^{Photo by Stéfan Le Dû}

Traditionally bank safes have been the no.1 place for people to deposit their valuable items such as jewelry, money, family heirlooms etc. However, in the new technology world there are now other important assets that we need to store safely that come in a more digital format such as our multiple passwords, usernames, website login criteria as well as digital photos and important documents. This is where online data safes – the next generation bank safe – come in.

The beauty of online data safes is that they not only protect your data assets now and for the future but you can also access them anytime and from anywhere as long as you have an internet browser – including on your mobile phone! This means that you can add to your safe regularly so that you always have the latest photos, versions of documents and contracts safely stored away.

Swiss banks have already seen the value of these services and refer to them as the Digital Safe Deposit Box, provided as an extension to the traditional bank safe services. At some banks customers even have their bank statements, receipts and letters deposited directly into their online Digital Safe Deposit Box as PDF files which is a more secure and cost effective way to deliver them than post.

There are a number of providers of online data safes (BT's Digital Vault, Gigabank, E-Tresor), the largest in Europe being DSwiss AG [Disclaimer: I work for DSwiss]. Wells Fargo is the largest US provider. With financial institutions already seeing the value of adding these services to their portfolios, it may only be a matter of time before more banks include this option as an add-on to their existing range of bank accounts.

Colin Henderson is a Banker at Bankwatch Consulting. He presents about "Bankers can be bloggers too..." on Thursday, February 8, 2007.