The company has deployed 2,500 eToken smart card devices since November 2006, with another 5,500 slated to be deployed throughout Q2 2007. Punjab National Bank (PNB) may expand its eToken use to as many as 14,000 smart card tokens in the coming quarters.
PNB provides a range of services requiring user authentication, including corporate and personal banking, industrial finance, agricultural finance, and financing of trade and international banking. The eTokens will be deployed to underscore the security of these services.
eToken will initially protect access to four of the bank’s key processes, namely its real-time gross settlement offering, its structured financial messaging system, its multimedia messaging service, and e-procurement.
Aladdin eTokens require the user to have both physical possession of the eToken and knowledge of its associated password to use the identity credential stored on the eToken and access sensitive data.
PNB decided to forgo using traditional smart cards and deploy Aladdin’s USB-based eToken, as it offers considerably more ease of use and doesn’t require the purchase and management of readers, said R Sidhu, general manager of information technology at PNB.
