Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) values innovation and speed and is the first bank to deploy one-time password technology to maintain a secure retail banking service in Japan. Initially an optional service in addition to TAN-lists, the bank implemented VASCO's next-generation authentication solution as of October 2013 strengthening their existing security measurements and plans to completely replace its existing authentication service with DIGIPASS 275.

The number of criminalities, fraud cases and incidents on the Internet, such as phishing and man-in-the-middle attacks is growing very fast in Japan. The last few years, not only financial institutes but also many organizations have been targeted. In this environment, SMBC needs to consider more sophisticated security measurements. The most imperative points for the bank were ease of understanding and user-friendliness, a shared security model with SMBC's affiliate financial companies and the implementation of a future proof solution able to withstand future advanced attacks.

The most adjusted solution for these requirements was VASCO's DIGIPASS 275.
"We concluded that a risk-based solution or a browser/malware detection solution is too cumbersome for users," said Hirohito Yokoyama, Group Head of Retail Banking department of SMBC. With the customer in mind, we were looking for a more intuitive and portable solution. Of course it needed to be a proven solution able to protect our users from advanced fraud schemes, such as man-in-the-browser attack."

"The cost and a short term deployment were also indispensable when it came to selecting a vendor," said Yuji Konishi," Manager of the Retail banking department of SMBC. "The internal coordination for many departments was also very challenging as this security implementation is a huge innovation since we started our Internet banking services ten year ago. VASCO's solution is compact and portable, design-oriented and is a functionally high-evaluated product. The amazing VASCO service, DIGIPASS Plus, which allows our affiliate financial institutes to strengthen their authentication security, was also a decisive factor."

DIGIPASS 275 is distributed free of charge through the bank's numerous branches.

Jan Valcke, President and COO at VASCO Data Security, adds: "We are very proud that SMBC, one of the biggest banks worldwide, has decided to implement VASCO's solution. Our mission is not only to pursue the innovation such as protecting unknown advanced attacks, but also to develop technology pursuing the user-friendliness. We believe that VASCO's technology contributes to advance the direct banking service of SMBC more competitively."