An article relating to this blog post on Finextra:
SocGen swaps hardware tokens for Entrust authentication technology
Societe Generale has signed for Texas-based e-security vendor Entrust's authentication platform, IdentityGuard, to protect online transactions and enterprise communications for high-end users.
See article
Maybe it is a result of the cost-cutting trend at banks, SocGen is replacing hardware tokens to grid-card customer authentication on the web.
The advantage is clear: it is cheaper to issue some small paper cards than to purchase one hardware token in the EUR 5-15 range, especially when we are talking about hundreds of thousands of customers.
The only drawback is the ease of use: pushing one button on the token versus looking up line 3 - coloumn E - line 1 - coloumn B - line 8 - coloumn D on the card.
I am curious whether other banks will follow this route or not.