Barclays Reports 1m UK Customers Online, Zero Fraud
Smart card vendor Gemalto credited with ensuring security.
By Orla O'Sullivan
Bank Systems & Technology
July 14, 2008

Barclays Bank, the world's fourth largest financial services firm, reported it has one million customers online in Britain and zero cases of fraud.

Barclays, which is a credit card issuer but not a retail bank in the States, attributes its security success to customer's use of smart card readers from Gemalto. The Amsterdam-based vendor also announced the renewal of its contract to provide mobile payments security to a consortium of French banks and mobile vendors, including leading institutions, such as BNP Paribas and Crdit Agricole-LCL.

Customers of Barclays, Britain's third-largest bank, carry Gemalto's PINsentry smart card readers with them to secure online transactions from any personal computer.

"Our goal was to provide our online customers with an easy-to-use, highly secure product to protect them against fraud," commented Sean Gilchrist, digital banking director, Barclays. "Adoption of the PINsentry reader by one million cardholders in one year is a clear demonstration that we made the right choice."