Identrus: No PAIN, No Gain for Banks in the Business Value Chain

Digital signatures need a reality check.

According to Celent's latest report, , only a few trusted third-party providers will overcome the legal and technological issues needed to bring digital signatures to the B2B market.

Four e-commerce pillars (PAIN) are supported by the trusted third-party infrastructure: privacy, authentication, integrity, and non-repudiation.In addition to digital signatures, the infrastructure includes digital certificates and attendant public key infrastructure (PKI).

To build closer ties with corporations, banks must move beyond secure messaging and offer other value-added applications enabled by their trust infrastructure. Industry con­sortia will play major roles in this development. The report spotlightsIdentrus, a global bank consortium which has succeeded in making digital signatures a reality for banks and their corporate customers.

Identrus stands out as the only contender that has established globally binding policies and rules," comments Alenka Grealish, author of the report. "As a result, its member banks will excel in the high-value, highly sensitive, and international business-to-business segments."

"Despite e-commerces current sluggishness, the time and cost savings derived from moving underlying business processes online are compelling," adds Alenka Grealish. A digital signature craze, however, will not overwhelm every sector of business-to-business commerce.Rather, the impact of digital signatures will be greatest in segments with special security or trust requirements. "Digital signatures will affect markets in Europe more than in the U.S.," comments Grealish, "because smart cards are widespread, as are e-signature laws that either explicitly or implicitly endorse a third-party trust infrastructure."

A Table of Contents is available online.

of Celent Communication's Wholesale Banking research service can download the report electronically by clicking on the icon to the left.