OREANDA-NEWS. April 25, 2012. Federated identity management from the BT Radianz Cloud, coupled with Hitachi's Finger Vein Authentication Engine will offer enhanced security between firms and service providers

 BT and Hitachi Europe Ltd. today announced that they are joining forces to design a compelling identity management solution to the financial services market. In this move, BT is introducing BT Unified Trading federation, a cloud based trust utility for secure identity exchange. This will incorporate Hitachi's Finger Vein Authentication Engine and technology to offer biometric security capabilities.

The combined strengths of both products will offer the market a trusted solution for the secure interchange of identities between financial firms, identity providers and service providers, at the heart of financial services industry.

BT Unified Trading federation will be easily accessible by the 15,000+ member sites in the BT Radianz Cloud, the world's largest secure networked financial services community. A key strength to the federation solution is that firms retain responsibility for their own directories, authentication and the attributes they allow third-parties to see. BT Unified Trading federation facilitates the secure exchange of that information.

The solution will use Hitachi's Finger Vein Authentication Engine and technology, which provide the key elements of the Identity Assurance process, through a fast and accurate biometric test of identity. This provides financial institutions with tangible user convenience, cost savings and productivity benefits, as well as improved security, an automatic audit trail, and improved compliance.

Tom Regent, president global banking & financial markets and sales & marketing, BT Global Services, said: "Greater security for storing and accessing customer information and transacting with business partners is becoming an increasingly prevalent regulatory requirement for the financial industry. And so, it was clear that a new approach was needed for identity management, one that employed new methods and new technology.
That is why we have been working closely with the financial services community to extend our award-winning BT Unified Trading solution, by adding federated identity management to the rich collaboration and compliance capabilities.

   "This development has gone extremely well and we are now at the point where we are looking to engage with financial institutions to develop bespoke customer solutions."

Akira Shimizu, managing director, Hitachi Europe Ltd. said: "We are extremely pleased that BT has chosen to collaborate with Hitachi for this exciting project. Our Finger Vein Authentication Engine and technology adds a new dimension to the BT Unified Trading federation offer. It provides assurance over the identity of those accessing privileged information and makes the connection between the individual and the credentials they hold. For any enterprise, this means a real time solution, which is highly flexible, easy to use and practical for the end-user."

BT Unified Trading federation will deliver many potential benefits to financial institutions:
single sign-on to cloud and enterprise applications and devices;
identity and counterparty assurance for the market;
improving security - reducing ability for individuals to use login credentials from a firm they have left;
collaboration across organisational boundaries, without compromise
rapid establishment of effective relationships and business-to-business processes through self administration and management of identity;
helping to address regulatory issues, for example, an imperative of the Dodd-Frank Act in the USA will be to introduce more accountability in terms of systems and procedures that relate to areas such as keeping customer information safe, protecting intellectual corporate data and combating identity theft.