3SKey, a personal electronic certificate for your payments
For companies making payments with multiple banks, authorization processes can be complex, involving logging on to each bank’s website. With 3SKey, you only need one token* to digitally sign your transactions with all your banks.
*Hardware security device such as a USB key, used for personal authentication with a unique identifier.
What is 3SKey?
The 3Skey is a multi-bank personal signature solution that is interoperable with the EBICS and Swift networks, created by SWIFT. It enables companies to digitally sign the messages and files they send to their banks. On a more practical level, the authorized individuals within a company have their own 3Skey certificate in the form of a token, enabling them to securely approve the sending of a transfer file to their bank
The digital signature has the same legal value as a handwritten signature and offers a number of significant advantages:
- Unforgeable and personal: guarantees the authenticity of the identity of the person validating the payment file.
- Increased security: certifies that the validated file has not been modified, ensuring the integrity of the information.
While managing different authentication methods can make banking transactions more complex and costly, adopting the 3SKey token offers a unified solution, by centralizing authentication and digital signature.
Whatever the type of transfer you make, and regardless of whether you use Swift or EBICS, you will be able to sign all your transactions with all your banks using your unique 3SKey.
The benefits of 3SKey
3SKey is continuously improved and updated by SWIFT to meet security requirements, technological developments, and the needs of companies. It has undeniable advantages, including:
1. Lower costs and greater efficiency
As 3SKey enables you to sign files sent to all your various banks with a single certificate and password, you save time in your missions.
2. Centralized management and enhanced security
The 3SKey benefits from the latest encryption systems to secure its use and minimize the risks of fraud.
The 3SKey is also a way for companies to easily manage access rights and authorizations for each user. A designated administrator can assign and revoke 3SKey token usage rights, guaranteeing effective control and secure transactions. Added to this are detailed logging functionalities that enable user actions to be tracked and verified, in order to ensure the transparency and compliance of the transactions.
3. Worldwide interoperability
The 3SKey is compatible with various types of transactions, including domestic and international payments. It can be used on both Swift and EBICS networks, offering great flexibility to companies working with different banks and systems. Furthermore, it is available in several languages, making it easy for multinational companies and international users to adopt.
4. Ease of use
The 3SKey certificates are built on standards which guarantee fast, easy integration into banking applications and payment management software.
How to use the 3Skey?
You can obtain 3SKey tokens from one of your banks. Next steps:
- Swift delivers the certificates on USB keys to the bank
- The tokens are supplied to the company’s designated administrator, who is responsible for distributing them to the users
- The administrator or users activate their USB key on the 3SKey web portal
- A certificate bearing a unique identifier for each user is generated on each 3SKey
- The users can register their certificate with a first bank, which checks their identity and associates it with the certificate, etc.
Please note that, for security reasons, a 3SKey token locks after 5 successive incorrect passwords have been entered.
Use the 3Skey on Cegid Allmybanks
The Cegid Allmybanks software is certified “Swift compatible”. This label means that the software meets the Swift requirements for standards, electronic messaging, and connectivity.
Swift provides inactive tokens (which cannot be used to sign
transactions). To start using your 3SKey on Cegid Allmybanks, you must first activate it by following the Swift procedure. You can then register your token in the Cegid Allmybanks application and use it to authenticate yourself and validate your remittances.
For example, users of an international company can use 3SKey to connect to Cegid Allmybanks and securely sign all its payment orders directly in the application, for all its bank accounts worldwide.