Nationwide rolls out chip and Pin for online transactions

Nationwide building society is rolling out more than one million chip and Pin card readers to customers to help secure their online banking.

The readers are based on remote card authentication technology. The system improves the security of e-banking services for the consumer in a convenient form factor, said Nationwide.

It said that now UK consumers are frequently using chip and Pin for retail purchases, using the same process at home is easy to understand.

With a personal chip and pin reader, Nationwide registered internet bank users will be able to benefit from the same convenient security as Nationwide already provides for any face-to-face transaction.

The Xi-Sign 4000 APACS reader is a portable, unconnected smart card reader that provides an extra layer of security for customers, by authenticating both them and the transaction.

The user inserts their Visa debit card into the card reader, enters their four-digit Pin number, and enters a reference number (an eight digit number) provided by the online bank.

The reader then displays an eight digit pass code to be entered on the bank site to confirm the transaction. This unique code is only valid for one transaction and cannot be re-used.

Full deployment of these readers direct to the end-users will be provided by XIRING during this spring.