Brussels, 11/08/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission published a Communication announcing that it intends authorising agreements between several large European and American banks- ABN AMRO, Bank of America, Barclays Bank, Hypo-Vereinsbank, Chase Manhattan Bank, Citibank, Deutsche Bank and Pyramid Ventures - that, in order to establish a global network for the authentication of electronic signature and the provision of services linked to financial operations and e-commerce, have set up a joint venture called Identrus. These agreements had been notified to the Commission in April 1999 and, since then, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Banco Santander Central Hispano, CIBC, WMC, HSBC Financial service Corporation and NatWest Group have joined. The system is open to other financial institutions. (The Communication was published in the Official Journal C 231 of 11 August).
The Commission notes that the aim of the initiative (provide final users with authentication services and services connected to security relating to financial transactions, in both the commercial and financial fields) corresponds to that of the Directive of December 1999 on electronic signatures, namely the creation of services facilitating the development of e-commerce. Furthermore, Indrus, which is a company subjected to US law, will have a limited number of shareholders, but none of them will have sole control over the company, and each participant can freely set the prices for their users.