"Mobile devices are doing more and more heavy lifting in the digital lives of consumers -- and this includes conducting highly sensitive financial transactions," said online service manager Nick Fantham, BNZ Online, Bank of New Zealand. "By embedding the security credential within the mobile application, we have maintained a high level of security and sped up the login process significantly."

An Entrust customer of six years, Bank of New Zealand now leverages the Entrust IdentityGuard authentication framework and software development kit (SDK) to deploy soft-token authentication in their line of mobile applications. The one-time passcode (OTP) authentication process takes place instantaneously and without the need for end-user interaction or involvement.

In fact, the mobile adoption is overwhelmingly successful in improving and enhancing customer engagement levels. Since launch, Bank of New Zealand has seen login volumes grow by some 250 percent -- all in a very short timeframe.

"This collaboration is the result of a globally respected financial institution taking the safety of customer identities seriously -- a quality they've demonstrated for years," said Entrust President and CEO Bill Conner. "By embedding strong authentication directly into their mobile-banking applications, BNZ ensures customer information and mobile transactions are properly secured."

In addition to the platform's ease of use and proven authentication capabilities, Bank of New Zealand also was drawn to maximizing the return on their initial Entrust IdentityGuard investment. The same platform BNZ deployed some six years ago has evolved ahead of malicious crime trends and will easily manage the distribution of the new soft-token technology. The framework enables organizations to layer security -- according to access requirements or the risk of a given transaction -- across diverse users, devices and applications.

While Bank of New Zealand's initial deployment includes soft tokens for mobile authentication, the Entrust IdentityGuard SDK includes powerful out-of-band transaction verification capabilities that can be leveraged to defeat advanced man-in-the-browser malware that targets the online channel. These Entrust IdentityGuard capabilities link cross-channel security to provide financial institutions a simple, streamlined and powerful solution that can be extended across varied channels including mobile, online, IVR and ATMs, as required.

To date, Bank of New Zealand has experienced amazing success with their NetGuard-branded grid card solution. Deployed and managed by Entrust IdentityGuard, the patented technology takes the form of a credit card-sized authenticator consisting of numbers and characters in a row-column format. Upon login, BNZ customers are presented with a coordinate challenge and must respond with the information in the corresponding cells from the unique grid card they possess.