Internet domain ‘.insurance’ available later this year
February 26, 2015 by IFAwebnews Staff
The Internet domain “.insurance” should be available to to the industry late this year, according to an organization that has signed an agreement to operate the domain in a “highly restrictive manner with strict eligibility requirements designed to ensure that the space is used by verified insurance industry members.”
The financial services-backed group, fTLD, submitted an application to the domain-approval organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), in May 2012, seeking to operate the “.insurance” generic top-level domain.
fTLD, which has a similar agreement to operate the “.bank” domanin, announced that a contract for the insurance name has now been signed, and that “.insurance” should be available for use by the end of 2015.
fTLD was created in 2011 by a group of banks, insurance companies and financial services trade associations after ICANN said it would accept applications for financial top-level domains.
The organization promises that “.insurance” will have enhanced security and all applicants will be “verified as legitimate member of the insurance community.”
Backers hope the new domain will help prevent users from being redirected to fake insurance websites and limit the ability of spammers to send emails from a fake .insurance domain.
“This major milestone will allow us to move forward with our initiative to enhance consumer confidence in the online financial system by creating a trusted, protected, more secure and easily identifiable space on the Internet for the insurance community,” said Craig Schwartz, managing director of fTLD.
fTLD has an advisory council of insurance industry organizations that includes:
•American Council of Life Insurers (United States)
•American Insurance Association (United States)
•Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association Inc. (Canada)
•European Banking Federation (Belgium)
•Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (United States)
•HSBC Holdings plc (United Kingdom)
•Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, Inc. (United States)
•Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (China)
•Insurance Bureau of Canada (Canada)
•Insurance Ireland (Ireland)
•Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (United States)
•Suncorp Group (Australia)
•U.S. Bancorp (United States)
The group already has a similar contract with ICANN to operate the .bank domain, which it said it expects to make available by mid-2015, several months before .insurance will go public.
“We see a tremendous opportunity for ‘.insurance’ to serve as a platform for innovation in insurance services, and securing the right to operate this top-level domain is the first step necessary to translate the community’s interests and hard work into the reality,” Schwartz said.
