Is a dot-bank domain name in your bank's future?

ACOMPANY ESTABLISHED BY ABA, the Financial Services Roundtable and other industry partners--known as Financial Top-Level Domain (fTLD) Registry Service LLC--signed an agreement recently to operate the registry for the new dot-bank (bank) Internet domain name.

FTLD also was created to apply for the dot-insurance (insurance) top-level domain. The dot-insurance application is still pending with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Banks currently have had a dot-corn Internet address may now obtain a dot-bank top-level domain.

Example: A bank with a dot-corn address (ABCBank.com ) can now register a dot-bank address, (ABC.bank).

Registration will be open only to verified members of the banking community starting June 1, 2015. Domains will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.

Better security is one major advantages of the new domain name. Dot-bank registration will require a series of controls not currently used by the operators of other commercial domain names. This means that under dot-bank, financial institutions would have less need to buy up "defensive" domain names to prevent scammers from setting up phony bank websites.

Dot-bank would also create new branding and marketing opportunities. A dot-bank...