Entersekt Brings Biometric Authentication to FirstBank’s Mobile App

By David Penn for Finovate Blog

When it comes to mobile banking, the only thing more important than providing customers with a first-rate app is making sure that it has first-rate security as well.

To this end, FirstBank—with more than $15 billion in assets and more than 120 locations in Colorado, Arizona, and California—has selected biometric authentication technologyfrom FinDEVr alum Entersekt to provide security for its iOS mobile banking app. In deploying Entersekt’s Transakt solution, FirstBank will give its mobile banking customers the ability to use Touch ID to authenticate as well as Transakt’s unique digital certificate identifier which the company says turns the mobile device “into a trusted second factor of authentication.”

Launched in 2014, FirstBank’s mobile banking app has been “incredibly well received” by customers, says bank COO Jim Reuter. “Adding one-touch authentication will further enhance what is already one of the most progressive, easy-to-use mobile banking technologies on the market.” FirstBank plans to add biometric authentication functionality to its Android-based mobile app soon.

“The security benefits are obvious to everyone,” Entersekt CIO Gerhard Oosthuizen explained, “but users are justifiably wary of tired authentication technologies like one-time passwords that slow them down and do not necessarily provide the required protection, particularly on mobile.” Oosthuizen sees his company’s technology as a way for “digital-savvier banks” to gain a valuable edge over their competitors “by engineering attractively low-friction mobile interactions that nevertheless inspire confidence and trust.”

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Stellenbosch, South Africa, Entersekt demonstrated its transaction authentication and mobile app security solutions at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014 as part of its presentation, “Securing Mobile Applications through Transport Layer Diversity.” In September, Entersekt announced a new reseller agreement with Minneapolis-based security firm, Blue Bay Technologies. And in August, Entersekt forged a partnership with Finovate alum Backbase that will make Entersekt’s authentication solutions available via Backbase’s Open Banking Marketplace.

First appeared at Finovate Blog