Actalis, a provider of ICT security and PKI (public key infrastructure) services for the Italian banking sector, has chosen Baltimore's PKI to provide the platform for securing interbank B2B transactions in compliance with Identrus requirements.
In one of the largest Identrus implementations worldwide, four of Italy's major banks - Sam Paolo IMI, Intesa-BCI, Monte dei Paschi di Siena and Banca di Roma - will go live with the service by the end of 2002.
The banks are members of Gruppo Utenti Identrus Italia (GUII), an organisation of seven Italian banks that joined the Identrus global trust network. Additional banks have already committed to launch the GUII service during 2003 and 2004.
Actalis, founded in December 2001 by SIA and SSB, allows users to exchange secure data and transactions over the Internet, by using a public and private key issued by a certification authority. Actalis has an installed base of 150 customers and a market share of 85% in the Italian certification market.
The Identrus root certification authority is based on Baltimore's UniCert technology.