Watchdog to introduce .fin.uk addresses to the internet
The Financial Services Authority is to attempt to set up a new domain name suffix to help users distinguish whether internet financial services are regulated or not.
Under the proposed scheme, the suffix .fin.uk could be added to the web addresses of those institutions regulated by the FSA, allowing potential customers to be assured of a site’s integrity.
This would require current operators such as Egg and Barclays to re-register their websites with longer names if they wished to indicate that they are scrutinised by the authority.
If the scheme were accepted by the industry, then foreign-owned institutions such as online bank First-e would not be able to make the switch given that they are not regulated by the FSA.
Opposition could also come from major banks who have invested large sums in establishing, registering and promoting their internet addresses.