Barclays Reports 1m UK Customers Online, Zero Fraud

Barclays Bank, the world's fourth largest financial services firm, reported it has one million customers online in Britain and zero cases of fraud.

Barclays, which is a credit card issuer but not a retail bank in the States, attributes its security success to customer's use of smart card readers from Gemalto. The Amsterdam-based vendor also announced the renewal of its contract to provide mobile payments security to a consortium of French banks and mobile vendors, including leading institutions, such as BNP Paribas and Crdit Agricole-LCL.

Customers of Barclays, Britain's third-largest bank, carry Gemalto's PINsentry smart card readers with them to secure online transactions from any personal computer.

"Our goal was to provide our online customers with an easy-to-use, highly secure product to protect them against fraud," commented Sean Gilchrist, digital banking director, Barclays. "Adoption of the PINsentry reader by one million cardholders in one year is a clear demonstration that we made the right choice."