Belfius partners with VASCO, becomes first bank to use Belgian eID for online banking

VASCO Data Security International says it is using the Belgian eID card for its mydigipass.com platform and has partnered with Belgian bank Belfius to make Belfius’s online banking application eID-ready.

According to the company, with its DIGIPASS eID reader, more than 10 million Belgians who own an eID card can now authentication and generate one-time passwords using their card and the PIN code linked to it. This means that users can authenticate themselves on any website secured by mydigipass.com using their eID and VASCO’s unconnected DIGIPASS 810 reader.

Belfius is a leading bank in Belgium and has more than 1.2 million active online banking clients and is the first to use the Belgian eID card for its online retail banking applications. The bank plans to deploy branded DIGIPASS 870 card readers in the third quarter of 2013.

“We are proud to be part of such collaboration,” Michel Luttgens, a marketing director for Belfius said. “Through the deployment of the new DIGIPASS card reader, Belfius will be able to continue offering its online banking customers secure access. It also enables Belfius’ customers to make full use of the eID-protected applications. In this way, Belfius can significant;y contribute to the adoption of eGovernment applications.”

The Belgian eID card does not contain any biometric data, though as reported previously in BiometricUpdate, three years after the deadline was set for issuing biometric passports with fingerprints, Belgium still fails to comply. The European Commission has referred the country to the Court of Justice of the EU on this issue.

Article Topics

authentication  |  biometric cards  |  e-ID  |  epassport  |  smartcard