SAN JOSE, Calif., RSA 2000, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Kawika Daguio, EVP of
the Financial Information Protection Association (FIPA), announced a
partnership today with Compaq, Novell, Xcert International, and IDCertify
called CAPKI (Constant Availability Public Key Infrastructure). The
partnership is demonstrating PKI-enabled applications (Automated Clearing
House Payments) at the Compaq and IDCertify booths at RSA 2000 this week.
CAPKI is among the first commercial certification authority (CA) service that
meets the demanding requirements of operations and security managers in
financial institutions.
    "PKI has not enjoyed broad support in securing transactions in finance
because the pilot platforms and applications are viewed as insufficiently
robust to support production environments. Therefore, FIPA has recruited
technology solution and service providers and financial institutions to come
together to develop and demonstrate that PKI, integrated with Compaq's
NonStop(TM) technology, can fulfill its promise to reduce costs, risks and
improve customer satisfaction with electronic banking," said Mr. Daguio.
    "Work done by Bankers Trust, the ABA and others have shown that PKI can
improve risk-adjusted return on capital by as much as 200 percent,
particularly in wholesale banking, and up to 60 percent in retail, but only if
properly designed and implemented," Daguio said.
    Michael Versace of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, a participant in
CAPKI, said, "The overall goal of this exercise, from my perspective, is to
demonstrate that a PKI can be built to meet or exceed the requirements of
payment systems in terms of reliability, availability, cost, etc."
    "With over 20 years of experience in providing 24x7, secure transactions
for the major financial institutions in the world, Compaq is happy to support
the first CAPKI," said Andrea Klein, vice president of financial services
industry solutions at Compaq.  "Compaq's NonStop(TM) technology can now be
extended to support the millions of certificates that will be globally
deployed by the financial services community for e-business transactions."
    "Xcert is pleased to provide the PKI framework for the CAPKI project,"
said Thomas Nolan, president & CEO of Xcert.  "Xcert's PKI products have
proven to be a great solution for the financial services industry with a
trusted architecture for secure electronic transactions and substantial ROI
for electronic banking.  We are excited that CAPKI is leveraging these new
features in this great initiative."
    "IDCertify is pleased to be part of the CAPKI partnership," said Bill
Dukes, CEO and President of IDCertify.
    "PHiTECH is pleased to be providing the transport mechanism for the CAPKI
solution at the RSA 2000 show. This is a natural extension of what PHiTECH has
been doing for over 15 years with our DataExpress product, which is to provide
secure, automated data delivery between our customers and their file trading
partners," said Hinda Gilbert, President and CEO.
    "We will be demonstrating the first application of this concept at the
Compaq and ID Certify booths at RSA 2000. FIPA feels it is crucial that we
provide the necessary leadership to help our members realize the benefit of
sound and robust PKI solutions.  This is critical in order for our members to
maintain their role as a center of trust as we all move into Internet mediated
finance," Daguio said.
    The CAPKI partners are planning to make COTS solutions available by summer
of 2000.

    About FIPA
    The Financial Information Protection, founded in 1999, has taken a leading
role in representing the financial community; it's professionals, suppliers
and regulators, in the promotion of sound infosec policy, technology and
regulation.

    Contacts:
    FIPA: Kawika Daguio  301-332-5224
    Compaq:  Otis Simmons  408-285-1593
    Novell:  Peter Woodward  858-546-4870
    IDCertify:  Charles Miller  510-527-9427
    Xcert International:  Tim Gage  604-640-6211
    PHiTECH:  Hinda Gilbert  415-765-1701

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