BITS
 | |
| Type: | Non-Profit Corporation |
| Founded: | 1996 |
| Country: | USA |
| Website: | BITS.org |
| Key People | |
| Paul Smocer, President | |
BITS is the technology policy division of the Financial Services Roundtable. It represents 100 of the largest financial services companies that provide insurance, investment products or banking services.[1]
It was created in 1996 by the Financial Services Roundtable to better help its members understand and collaborate on new technologies.[2]
.Bank and .Insurance Financial TLD Initiative[edit | edit source]
BITS/The Financial Services Roundtable, in partnership with the American Bankers Association, formed fTLD Registry Services, LLC (fTLD) to apply to ICANN to operate financially-oriented gTLDs. In 2012, fTLD submitted community-based applications [1] for the .bank and .insurance TLDs to provide trusted and protected online spaces for the banking and insurance industries and their millions of consumers. Craig Schwartz, former chief gTLD registry liaison of ICANN, serves as the head of operations for fTLD. fTLD chose Verisign to serve as its back-end registry operations provider.[3] [4][5]
Objection[edit | edit source]
Before the application process was event closed, the European Banking Authority sent a warning letter to ICANN arguing that financially-oriented gTLDs are "dangerous and should be banned". [6]
Competitor[edit | edit source]
The BITS and ABA's application for .bank and .insurance domain name strings are both in contention with those of Radix, a subsidiary business of the Directi Group, which applied for 31 new gTLDs.[7] Its .insurance TLD is further contested by Donuts, the largest single gTLD applicant, and Progressive Casualty Insurance Co..[8]
BITS and ICANN[edit | edit source]
BITS has participated in the ICANN process since 2008 and has sent letters to ICANN following the publication of certain new gTLD program materials. BITS has sent letters to ICANN following the publication of many of the organization's new gTLD programs, including the first, second, third and fourth versions.[9][10][11][12] In late 2010, BITS threatened legal action against ICANN should it not defer the delegation of any financial TLD.[13] Since that time, BITS announced it is working with the American Bankers Association to apply for financial TLDs.
BITS has been vocal about what it deems as mandatory secuirty measure for any financially related gTLD. There are no specific measures stipulated in ICANN's Applicant Guidebook. BITS' Security Standards Working Group has made its own set of suggestions to ICANN on such requirements.[14]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ BITS official website
- ↑ A short history about the creation of BITS
- ↑ ABA and The Financial Services Roundtable Apply for Financial Domains to Protect Consumers
- ↑ Financial Top Level Domain Initiative
- ↑ VeriSign now front-runner for .bank
- ↑ Europe to warn consumers about .bank “risks”
- ↑ Directi Invest Over $30 Million & Applies For 31 New gTLD’s: Including: .Law, .Web, .Bank, .Shop
- ↑ ViewStatus, gTLDresult.ICANN.orgRetrieved 8 Jan 2013
- ↑ BITS Comment, v1, BITS.org
- ↑ BITS Comment, v2, BITS.org
- ↑ BITS Comments, v3, BITS.org
- ↑ BITS Comments, v4, BITS.org
- ↑ ICANN Told To Ban Bank or Get Sued, DomainIncite.com
- ↑ High Security Bank Spec Published, DomainIncite.com