Mizuho Becomes First Japanese Bank to Deploy FIDO Solution

“In announcing the move, Fujitsu Limited VP Michihiko Ejiri said it makes Mizuho the first Japanese bank to deploy a FIDO certified solution…”

One of Japan’s biggest financial institutions, Mizuho Bank, has deployed Fujitsu’s Finplex Online Authentication Service for its mobile banking customers.

The development arrives after Fujitu integrated Nok Nok Labs‘ FIDO certified S3 Authentication Suite into its solution last year. In announcing the move, Fujitsu Limited VP Michihiko Ejiri said it makes Mizuho the first Japanese bank to deploy a FIDO certified solution, adding, “we are pleased to have worked with Nok Nok Labs to enable it.”

The deployment enables biometric login for Mizuho’s mobile customers, but Nok Nok Labs says the bank is also consider potential applications of the technology.

Offering further commentary, Nok Nok Labs Products VP Rajiv Dholakia framed the development as part of a larger trend driven by regulatory developments like the impending Payments Services Directive 2 (PSD2) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union. “Our partners around the world, like Fujitsu Limited, have seen and responded to this need to comply with regulations in a global way and take a strategic view of authentication,” he said, adding that the S3 Authentication Suite, with its adherence to FIDO standards, offers “a simple, secure and scalable way to move towards compliance”. That points to more deployments to come after this latest one with Mizuho Bank.