Capital One commercialises AirKey authentication technology for financial institutions
AirKey, a near-field communication-enabled authentication technology created by Capital One, is now to be offered on a commercial basis to other fraud-fighting financial institutions.
Capital One to offer AirKey to FIs
Developed over the last seven years, AirKey leverages an embedded applet to enable cardholders to authenticate their identity by tapping their card against a mobile device.
Capital One initially launched AirKey for its own customers over four years ago and claims 75 million of its cards are currently equipped with the technology.
With this, the bank is now extending AirKey to other financial institutions, providing what its managing VP of card fraud, disputes and AML strategy, Chris Sparks, describes as “a multi-layered approach to fraud prevention”.
“With AirKey, financial institutions can get the efficacy of a hardware token, but the convenience of something their customers already have in their wallets,” comments Sparks.
A statement by Capital One confirms the bank is “working with several partners to make AirKey available to a broad range of financial institutions”, who will be able to authenticate cardholders “across a variety of use cases”.
These include 3D Secure (3DS) transactions, app enrolment, digital wallet services and the issuance of virtual cards, among other actions.
Backed by more than 300 patents in the US and over 400 issued and allowed patents in other jurisdictions, AirKey is currently compatible with iOS and Android operating systems, and does not require an additional app to function.
