London, 8th March, 2011 – Metro Bank, the first new high street bank in the UK for 100 years, today announced it has enlisted the Trusteer Rapport secure browsing service to ensure its customers are protected and secure in their online transactions with the bank, from the start. Having experienced exponential growth since its launch in July, a key consideration in Metro Bank’s selection of Trusteer is that it is a proven security technology that can scale in a rapid growth environment moving from protecting a several thousand customers one day to millions the next.   Metro Bank brings a fresh approach to banking in the UK. As a new entrant to the industry, Metro Bank has the perfect opportunity to benefit from the latest technology and business practice.

One such area is online banking where it believes it is important not only to secure customers accessing their bank accounts online, but also when they spend online on other websites, with the mindset that providing adequate protection for all of its customers’ online financial transactions is paramount.   Craig Donaldson, CEO, Metro Bank PLC, explains further, “When we launched in July, we wanted to differentiate our services from other high street banks.  We take the security of our customers very seriously and that means we have the best security components available. By adding Trusteer to our armory and offering it as a complimentary service to our customers, we can ensure that not only do we provide an  unparalleled customer service experience, but also that our customers’ money is completely safe and secure”.  

“By selecting Trusteer, Metro Bank has plugged into the biggest financial attack database on the internet and can immediately leverage the experience of the most attacked brands in the world to protect their customers against malware and phishing attacks,¨ said Mickey Boodaei CEO of Trusteer. “When it comes to being able to detect, analyze, and remove financial threats from customers' computers trusteer has proven over and over again that it’s the fastest and most comprehensive technology in the market today.”   Security Begins At Home Unfortunately, in today’s threat environment, traditional protection methods (firewalls and antivirus software) are inadequate as criminals are continually striving to find ways to circumnavigate them. Zeus is one such example with its ability to morph making it hard for traditional technology to detect.

Providing additional security measures helps everyone bank safely online, even those who are not technically savvy, which helps keep costs down. The strength of Trusteer is that it protects customers at their own PC providing a trusted secure access point to the bank, meaning they can transact securely and provides confidence that everyone is protected – bank and customers.   Trusteer Secures Online Banking When a Trusteer user browses to sensitive websites such as internet banking, Webmail, or online payment pages, the service immediately locks down the browser and creates a secure tunnel for safe communication with the web site. This prevents malware from injecting data and stealing information entered and presented in the browser. Trusteer also removes malicious financial malware it discovers on protected machines.

The service is directly connected to the bank and to a 24x7 fraud analysis service. Attempts to steal money from customers are immediately detected by the bank and are blocked using various layers of protection.   Trusteer Secures Online Spending  When a customer uses their bank card to make an online purchase from a computer protected by Trusteer, the Rapport service automatically detects the action and then prevents fraudsters from intercepting the card number and protects any other personal information entered by the user into the webpage.