Under the Brazillian agreement, HSBC will provide Vasco's Digipass GO3 to its business customers to securely perform banking transactions via the bank's Connect Bank business Internet banking application. The contract was won by Vasco in conjunction with local Brazillian partner UserID.

In 2003, it is estimated that the Brazilian banking industry lost $30 million due to Internet banking fraud schemes such as trojan horses and phishing attacks.

"Security and user acceptance were crucial for the success of our Web-based Connect Bank business banking application," says Jacques Depocas head of the alternative channels of HSBC Brazil. "Vasco's Digipass GO3 is extremely easy to use and transforms the Internet into a safe place to perform banking transactions."

Digipass GO3 provides users with a unique one-time password for accessing online applications.

Seperately, HSBC in Australia has signed a contract with Melbourne IT to license Fraudshield an 'anti-phishing' tool that searches for bogus bank sites. The software trawls the Internet looking for sites with content that matches that on genuine bank sites. The Melbourne-based company says a number of other banks are trialing the technology.