Poland's national interbank clearing house KIR ((Krajowa Izba Rozliczeniowa SA) is introducing PKI-based smart cards from Setec to create a secure communications channel with Polish bank branches for transactions conducted over the Elixir national funds transfer system.
KIR is providing clearing banks with cryptographic sets, consisting of 10 PKI smart cards and a reader. The cards are being introduced to generate electronic signatures and to encrypt information about balance statements.
The installation of the first sets in Polish banks' branches started in September 2001. KIR assumes that by the end of July 2002, the whole Elixir system will use cryptographic sets. Implementation is being handled by Setec's Polish technology partner CryptoTech.
Setec's PKI smart cards are compatible with the general smart card standard PKCS#11 and generate 1024-bit RSA cryptographic keys.