The growth of e-commerce won a boost on 1 August when the European Commission cleared the creation of a network for authenticating electronic signatures.
Eight banks set up the global Identrus system, which will also deal with other aspects of financial and e-commerce transactions. The banks and other financial institutions taking part in the network will operate as separate, competing certification authorities for secure e-commerce operations. Identrus required clearance by the Commission to check that competition was not being restricted in breach of EU law.
Participation in Identrus will be open to financial institutions that meet the Basle Committee’s capital requirements and other financial ratings. Each company can offer its own independently created applications using the Identrus infrastructure, in competition with others in the network. Each is free to set its own prices for authentication services, and end-users can choose any company in the network, regardless of whether
