FIDO Alliance Offers Guidance on European e-Banking Regulations

The FIDO Alliance has added its voice to a discussion being conducted by European policymakers on authentication security standards for online payments. The cross-industry consortium has submitted its comments to European Banking Authority (EBA) with respect to its Discussion Paper on future Draft Regulatory Technical Standards on Strong Customer Authentication and Secure Communication.

The Discussion Paper is an important part of the EBA’s efforts to draft authentication security standards appropriate for the digital payments methods now beginning to proliferate across the region, and indeed the world. FIDO, as a 250-member organization that continues to grow as more stakeholders in digital payments take interest in its efforts to establish security standards and best practices, would naturally have much to offer the EBA in terms of expert guidance in this area.

The EBA’s deadline for public comment has only just closed, so it’s too early to see how receptive the organization will be to FIDO’s proposals. But given its credibility—experts have called it “the most important Identity Management (IdM) consortium in an industry that has seen many associations over many years”—it seems likely that the EBA will be paying attention to its proposals.

Meanwhile, as government authorities elsewhere in the world start to take a greater interest in citizens’ digital security, the FIDO Alliance and others like it may soon find many more opportunities to help shape the discourse. For its part, the FIDO Alliance has said in a statement that its submission of comments to the EBA will be the “first example of many where the FIDO Alliance is going to be engaging policy makers on the topic of authentication”.