.cba

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Status:	Proposed
Registry Provider:	Afilias
Type:	Brand TLD
Priority #:	378 - COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA

.cba is a Brand TLD being proposed in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The applicant is COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA.

Application Details

The following is excerpted from the applicant's response to question #18:

"The new .cba gTLD will operate as a restricted registry, in which the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) can create and control domain spaces that promote its brand identity and authenticity. In this regard, .cba will be used by CBA to provide information, services and resources to customers in a way that promotes trust, confidence and utility. The .cba gTLD will provide an authoritative internet space for CBA, its affiliates and partners that are associated with the CBA brand. Second and third level domain names can then be utilised for online banking, specific product and services websites and for communication and marketing purposes, with internet users assured of brand authenticity.

CBA is Australia’s leading provider of integrated financial products and services including retail, premium, business and institutional banking, funds management, superannuation, insurance, investments and stockbroking. As Australia’s largest retail bank, CBA has leading domestic market shares in retail deposits, home loans, personal loans, credit cards and discount stockbroking. In 2011, CBA was in the top 10 largest banks in the world by market capitalisation and was ranked equal 12th in Global Finance’s World’s 50 Safest Banks based on long-term credit ratings. CBA is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) with a market capitalisation of approximately AUD70 billion, revenue in the 2011 financial year of AUD46 billion and over 52,000 employees. CBA is the stock code for CBA’s listing on the ASX and the acronym “CBA” is commonly used by the media and customers to refer to the company. CBA is Australia’s leading online bank with over five million online banking customers. NetBank, CBA’s online banking website and application, is consistently in the top 10 most visited Australian websites. Also, all email correspondence to customers (including email notifications from the internet banking application) is currently issued on cba.com.au email addresses. In this regard, consumer trust, brand reputation and continuous innovation are paramount considerations in all its activities. As well as strengthening CBA’s position as Australia’s leading online bank, the .cba gTLD will enhance consumer trust and confidence in CBA’s online brands by providing a more secure and authentic online banking environment. These goals will be complemented by CBA’s separate applications for the new .commbank and .netbank gTLDs."

Developments

Name Collision

Many applications for new gTLDs have raised security concerns because the applied-for strings are already in wide use on internal networks in certain areas of the world. This would create a name collision if the new gTLD were to be delegated and could cause serious security concerns for some strings. CBA's application for .cba has been deemed an "uncalculated risk" by ICANN because of name collision with existing internal networks, which means the application will face delays until the issues are resolved. CBA initially reported that the name collision was primarily due to existing networks in "CBA internal systems," however that claim was disputed by Verisign which reported that only 6% of traffic to .cba is due to CBA. Verisign reports that the majority of traffic to .cba is coming from Chiba, Japan where network administrators use the string because it matches with the local airport code (CBA).