First National Bank of Waterloo Switching To More Secure .BANK Domain

The main takeaway:

For security purposes our website URL now end in ‘.BANK’ instead of ‘.com’.  Look for the ‘.BANK’ before interacting with our website or emails from us.

What is .BANK?

.BANK is a gated domain, like .gov or .edu, but for verified banks. Replacing .com, which can be purchased by anyone, .BANK quickly verifies that the website is authentically our bank’s, so you can interact with confidence when you see the ‘.BANK’ at the end of our website URL.

How is .BANK more secure?

All banks are verified and authenticated by fTLD, the .BANK administrator, prior to registering their .BANK domain, and re-verified annually thereafter. This ensures everyone using a .BANK domain is an eligible institution. Hackers and bad actors can’t get a .BANK domain to create lookalike domains for phishing and spoofing, as they can in ‘.com’ and other publicly available domains.

With the ‘.BANK’ visual authentication cue in place you can quickly confirm our website it real, and avoid interactions that could lead to identity theft and financial fraud. This authentication is also an additional layer of protection for internal and vendor communications, helping to secure against potential breaches.

All banks within the .BANK domain must also implement additional Security Requirements to help secure their sites, and protect them, their vendors and their customers from phishing, spoofing and other cyberattacks. All banks using .BANK are monitored for compliance with these security requirements on an ongoing basis.

Do I need to do anything differently now that you’re .BANK?

Our website URL now ends in .BANK. From now on, before you enter your username and password on our website, simply look for the ‘.BANK’ to authenticate the website is ours.

Our .com website redirects to our new .BANK site, but over time you should update your address book and bookmark for our site.

You’re the first ‘.BANK’ I’ve seen; why haven’t all the other banks moved?

The move to .BANK is a business decision every bank must make, and plan for, based on its priorities and resources. We decided it was a priority for us to enhance our security and provide our customers with an easy way to authenticate our communications and our website.

How does this affect emails that come from my banker?  Will they be changing to .BANK?

Our emails have also been changed to .bank as of September 7, 2020. If you receive an email from FNB Waterloo or an employee of ours, please verify that you are receiving the email from .bank.  If .com, contact the bank or employee to verify the authenticity of the email.

If you have questions or concerns about these changes, please do not hesitate to contact us at 618.939.6194 or toll free at 888.231.3165.