What is Online banking?

Online banking, also called internet banking or web banking, can be an electronic payment system that allows customers of a bank or other lender to conduct a variety of financial transactions through the financial institution's website. The web bank operating system will typically hook up to or participate the core bank operating system operated by a bank and is as opposed to branch banking that was the original way customers accessed banking services.

Source: scottrade login access your scottrade account Some banks operate as a "direct bank" (or “virtual bank”), where they rely completely on internet banking. Internet banking software provides personal and corporate banking services offering features such as for example viewing account balances, obtaining statements, checking recent transactions, transferring money between accounts and making payments. Operation

To gain access to a financial institution's online banking facility, a person with internet access will have to register with the institution for the service, and setup a password and additional credentials for customer verification. The credentials for online banking is normally not the same as for telephone or mobile banking. Financial institutions now routinely allocate customers numbers, whether customers possess indicated an intention to access their online banking facility. Customer numbers are normally not the same as account numbers, because a number of customer accounts can be linked to the one customer number. Technically, the customer number can be linked to any account with the financial institution that the customer controls, though the financial institution may limit the range of accounts that may be accessed to, say, cheque, savings, loan, credit card and similar accounts. The client visits the financial institution's secure website, and enters the web banking facility using the client number and credentials previously create. Each lender can determine the types of financial transactions which a person may transact through online banking, but usually includes obtaining account balances, a listing of recent transactions, electronic bill payments, financing loans and funds transfers between a customer's or another's accounts. Most banks set limits on the amounts which may be transacted, and other restrictions. Most banks also enable customers to download copies of bank statements, which may be printed at the customer's premises (some banks charge a charge for mailing hard copies of bank statements). Some banks also enable customers to download transactions straight into the customer's accounting software. The facility may also enable the customer to order a cheque book, statements, report loss of credit cards, stop payment on a cheque, advise change of address and other routine actions. There exist several countermeasures which stay away from attacks. Whatever operating-system is used, it really is advised that the operating-system continues to be supported, and properly patched. Digital certificates are used against phishing and pharming, in signature based online banking variants (HBCI/FinTS) the usage of "Secoder" card readers is a measurement to discover software side manipulations of the transaction data. In 2001, the U.S. Federal FINANCE INSTITUTIONS Examination Council issued assistance for multifactor authentication (MFA) and required to maintain place by the finish of 2006. In 2012, europe Agency for Network and Information Security advised all banks to consider the PC systems of their users being infected by malware by default and for that reason use security processes where the user can cross-check the transaction data against manipulations like for example (provided the security of the mobile phone holds up) SMS TAN where the transaction data is sent along with the TAN number or standalone smartcard readers with an own screen including the transaction data into the TAN generation process while displaying it beforehand to the user (see chipTAN) to counter man-in-the-middle attacks.