fTLD Registry Services announced today that more than 5,500 .BANK applications have been received from members of the global banking community at a retail price of $1,000 + depending on the registrar.
Unlike most domain names, .Bank is restricted so if you want to register a domain you have to fill out an application and provide proof that you qualify to own a .Bank domain
Top locations for .BANK registrations have come from banking institutions across the United States, as well as countries including South Africa, the United Kingdom and Spain.
Early adopters like Kansas City-based Lead Bank are among the banks preparing to switch their .com websites over to the .BANK address, citing the enhanced security features of the domain, including strong encryption and verification requirements, as a key driver of the decision to transition.
Craig Schwartz, managing director of fTLD Registry Services is quoted as saying:
“The strong demand for owning a .BANK domain, since the new web extension was launched last month, shows that banks recognize that the security offered by .BANK will be a critical tool for protecting their customers’ proprietary information,” said. “To customers who visit a .BANK website, the look and feel will be similar to that of other websites, but the use of .BANK will signal their bank’s commitment to online security.”
All applications for .BANK web addresses are verified by Symantec as part of the domain’s enhanced security requirements. This ensures that only banks and other organizations that are eligible for a .BANK name are granted one. Symantec has completed more than 2,000 verifications and .BANK names are reserved for the banks that submitted the applications until the verification process is complete.
To request “A Guide to Leveraging .BANK” please visit www.register.bank/guide/.
.BANK is now open to all eligible organizations.
For complete eligibility requirements, please see the .BANK Registrant Eligibility Policy.
.bank is an English word/extension, while .com is a global extension.
I assume 90+% of .bank registrations are from the United States and only few small banks will actually use it.
Since .bank is a restricted extension, there is no reason to hurry up with defensive registrations.
You better stay with .com!
Thanks for reporting this. This to me is yet another strong signal how bullish everyone is on new TLDs and that many operators will be able to run a profitable business for a long time despite all the naysayers.
This is a clear indicator in what direction we are moving. COMs will keep selling but owners of medium-priced organic names up to 20k will lose a lot of leverage during negotiations. Businesses and investors will be scared of buying medium-quality DOT COMs because their value could deteriorate, which means this development will drive up prices of ultra-premium domains like teamwork.com, malls.com, business.com and so on. Losers are possibly owners of domains like GolfHolidays.com, since I could simply make the argument why spend 50,000 on the COM when I could get Holidays.Golf for a lot less and have a name that is actually part of a large industry. Industry insiders will feel ‘at home’ on those extensions, which means loyalty, which means trust and recognition. Of course this trust is not earned over night. It will take time. But we’ll get there. Many are already building businesses on .realtor and we know the real estate industry is kind of like the adult industry when it comes to innovation. They embrace change and don’t hide in the closet.
Time to move on. I will still register COMs but I sure as hell wont buy names unless they are real premium keywords.
This is probably one of the most spot-on comments I’ve read, relating to the way naming might unfold in the future. IMO Dot Com will still be the largest individual TLD, but many, many viable alternative TLD’s will marginalize the totality of .com’s mindshare in future.
Speaking as the owner of a large portfolio of valuable dot com names, I once felt comfortable explaining that people should spend whatever it takes to buy one of my .com names because they could rest easy knowing their acquisition/investment cost could be amortized over many years and that a buyer could realize a life-time of permanence and value by purchasing the .com (an extension with ubiquitous and singularly viable resonance).
In a World with thousands of shorter, better looking and newly-viable name endings, I no longer believe .com to be singularly viable and sense the potential for a rift in resale valuations of .com names in the years ahead.
Hello Frank, all of your domains are overvalued, e.g. JokeNews.com listed for $21,850 My Gosh $21k!!!
I went and reg’d the name Joke.news! Even if I had $21,850 I wouldn’t buy jokenews.com. What a ridiculous price for SiteMail.com $324,300 ? I reg’d site.email for $16.99 🙂
Best Regards,
Russell P.
myblog.rocks
It looks like joke(.)zone is gone today. This name was available for reg.. http:// s1.postimg .org/n82butgpb/jokezoneee.png
BTW jokezone(.)com was sold for $3k
Spot on, Oliver.
Excellent point!
and to be clear its a restricted space so you just can’t register a domain in it you have to prove you are in the community
Let us hope the major banks such as Barclays, BOFA, Wells Fargo, CITI, and more, applied; also let us hope the registry did not allow any shell corps with forged/and/or created docs. were not allowed to registrar domains. Otherwise this will become a Pandora Box for the GTLDs.
Imagine the scenario — you get a link from “BOFA” on your mobile, click — and volia, the phishing begins. by the entity posing as Bank of America,
Banks will not going to spend money and time to re-brand their existing site. It is easier for them to reserve the domains and redirect it to existing website.
I would like to see how many of these 5,500 to go live.