While talking to eFE, Mr Sriraman Jagannathan, vice-president and head, Internet, mobile & e-commerce operations of Citibank said that the bank is planning to set up PKI as it is going to be a necessity in the near future for any bank to offer online banking services. However, he was noncommittal about the time by when bank would be ready to use digital signatures in India.

"It is a little premature to comment about the exact plans because we have just initiated the process. Setting up a robust PKI setup will take substantial time and efforts and requires huge investment in the range of $5 million to $7 million," he said.

When asked whether the Bank would like to become the certifying authority for issuing digital signatures, Mr Jaggannathan replied that the model has not been decided as yet as a lot would depend on the acceptability and popularity of digital signatures among users.

Any bank which plans to introduce digital signatures for its users will have three options to choose from, for its business model. One, becoming a certifying authority as an independent business model. Two, to become a certifying authority only for its consumers. And three, a tie-up with any other certifying authority for issuing signatures for its consumers.

However, Citibank being a foreign bank, will have to enter into a joint-venture to become a certifying authority as Government regulations do not allow a foreign company to have more then 49 per cent stake in a digital signature certifying venture.

Digital signatures will help consumers and banks accomplish many activities such as opening and closing of accounts, loan disbursement processes, etc, where the physical signatures of the customers are required on papers and applications. Besides, it will provide additional security to the operations as compared to electronic passwords.

Once the certifying authorities are in place, different kinds of digital signature certificates will be available for different purposes, depending on security levels. Which means that while some digital signatures will be used only for identification, other can be used for more serious jobs such as signing contracts or financial transactions.