Postbank's mobile TAN procedure has now been awarded the TÜV stamp for providing exemplary online banking security. The TÜV Rheinland Group thus confirms that the mobile transaction number (mTAN) provides "effective protection for technical systems that be accessed externally from unauthorized use". The customer receives the mTAN, which authorizes an online transfer, by text message on their cell phone. It is only valid for the single transaction and is consequently of no use to fraudsters. In addition to the mTAN, Postbank also sends details of the destination account number and amount in the text message. This enables the customer to check again whether the correct transaction has been submitted to Postbank.

Arbeitsgruppe Identitätsschutz im Internet e.V. (a-i3), a working group on identity protection on the Internet, also confirmed the high security of the mobile TAN. "Due to the additional display of account number and amount on the cell phone, the mTAN procedure provides security against all known types of phishing and pharming attempts to date", said Prof. Jörg Schwenk, Chairman of the working group.

mTAN is also particularly flexible: anyone who has registered for the service can use mTAN at any time. Postbank has also improved the registration procedure in order to rule out any misuse. Anyone wishing to use mTAN must first be authorized via telephone banking or by sending a fax to Postbank. Postbank sends the text message with the mTAN at a cost price of nine cents.

Postbank has been providing the mTAN service to customers across Germany since August 2005. A pioneer of the procedure, it introduced mTAN for the private customer portal "Postbank direct" for the first time in 2003. Together with the indexed TAN (iTAN), the Internet transfer limit and the recently launched Postbank mail signature, it is part of Postbank's package of measures to combat phishing in online banking. Postbank is one of the market leaders in online banking in Germany. Around 2.6 million customers manage 3.2 million Postbank checking accounts, savings accounts and deposit accounts online.

A press photo is available at: www.postbank.de/foto