Pub. 4 2015 Issue 1

The CommunityBanker 16 o you know who governs the Internet? Someone has to do it. Thanks to ICANN, the Internet maintains an appropriate level of organization and structure, while still being a place of intellectual freedom. ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN is an oversight body that ensures unification of the Internet in many ways, namely, policy development for existing and new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). In 2008, ICANN approved a program to open the Internet to thousands of new gTLDs (that’s your .com, .org, .edu, and the like). Then in 2011 ICANN launched the New gTLD Program. The program’s goals include enhancing competition, consumer choice, and innovation through the introduction of new gTLDs. In response to this opportunity the financial industry put together a coalition of banks, insurance companies and financial services trade associations to establish fTLD Registry Services (fTLD). Each gTLD must be managed by a registry in order to be used. fTLD operates the .bank gTLD on behalf of the global banking community as of September 25, 2014. Additionally, its application for .insurance is currently in contracting. In December 2014, fTLD released a Registrant Eligibility Policy to begin the process of distributing .bank gTLDs. “This Policy sets forth the classifications of businesses D Dot Bank ByLeticia Saiid, Security+CoNetrix BANK BYTES