The new system replaces the previous user name and password login process Citibank’s online banking customers used.
The first security enhancement Citibank will offer is via the security question. Customers logging into Citibank Online will first key in their username and password. In addition, they will be provided with an additional security question, which is privy only to them.
Next, when customers register new bills to pay or new third-party accounts for fund transfers within Citibank or Interbank via Giro, they will use an online authorization code (OAC). The OAC is a six-digit code that will be sent via SMS to the customers’ mobile phones. This code will have to be keyed into Citibank Online when customers register new bills or accounts for payments and fund transfers respectively.
Citibank claims that the multi-factor authentication technology is unique to the bank, and said that the SMS sending option for the OAC was chosen as a large percentage of the bank’s online banking users also have mobile phones.
Citibank was the first foreign bank to offer internet banking in Malaysia and, in a bid to entice more customers to bank online, it is running a promotion until the end of the year whereby customers who pay bills or perform online banking transactions will be entered into a draw to win a Lenovo notebook computer or a Creative MP3 player.
