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More than 5,500 organizations line up for .bank domain

Only verified and approved organizations may use the the top-level domain, whose features include strong encryption and authentication requirements.

July 24, 2015

More than 5,500 banks worldwide have entered requests to change their .com URLs to the new .bank domain, according to a press release from fTLD Registry Services LLC, gatekeeper of financial top-level domains .bank and .insurance.

The top locations for registration requests are the United States, South Africa, Spain and the United Kingdom, the registry service said.

"The strong demand for owning a .bank domain, since the new Web extension was launched last month, shows that banks recognize that the security offered by .bank will be a critical tool for protecting their customers' proprietary information," fTLD Managing Director Craig Schwartz said in the release. "To customers who visit a .bank website, the look and feel will be similar to that of other websites, but the use of .bank will signal their bank's commitment to online security." 

Kansas City-based Lead Bank is among those preparing to make the switch to .bank.

"[M]oving from a .com to a .bank URL was a strategic decision for us," said Lead Bank Vice Chairman Josh Rowland said in the release. "While we are a small bank, we want our clients to have confidence that we are leading the way when it comes to providing the most secure and efficient technology to our clients."

All applications for .bank web addresses are verified by Symantec as part of the domain's enhanced security requirements. This ensures that only eligible organizations are granted a .bank name. Symantec has completed more than 2,000 verifications to date. According ton the fTLD regis, the requested .bank name is held in reserve for an applicant until the verification process is complete.  

The fTLD Registry Services publication, "A Guide to Leveraging .bank," provides a framework of communications and educational recommendations for banks adopting the new domain.

Interested applicants may submit an online request to receive a copy of the guide.