Security First Network Bank (SFNB) was the first pure

Internet bank A direct bank (sometimes called a branch-less bank or virtual bank) is a bank that offers its services only via the Internet, email, and other electronic means, often including telephone, online chat, and mobile check deposit. A direct bank has no ...

in the United States. It had no physical branch bank offices and could only be accessed online. It was founded in Pineville,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

, in October 1995 by James (Chip) S. Mahan III. Several months later, the bank relocated to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia. It was initially established as a

savings bank A savings bank is a financial institution whose primary purpose is accepting savings account, savings deposits and paying interest on those deposits. History of banking, They originated in Europe during the 18th century with the aim of providi ...

along with a wholly owned software company (Security First Technologies). Eventually teller services were added in Atlanta. On September 30, 1998,

Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; french: Banque royale du Canada) is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 17 million clients and has more than 89,000& ...

(RBC) acquired the banking portion of the Security First Network Bank, RBC Centura Banks, Inc, SEC Form 10-K, December, 2002
/ref> while the software development company was spun off as

S1 Corporation S1 Corporation was an American software development company based in Norcross, Georgia which specialized in payment processing and financial services software for automated teller machines and retail point of sale applications, primarily for b ...

. RBC subsequently acquired Centura Bank of North Carolina, rebranded the online banking segment as RBC Centura, and made several adjustments to customer terms of service at that time. Before Security First, some banks had experimented with a variety of schemes for providing online banking. Usually this involved some kind of token that was placed in an account that could only be used on the Internet. The tokens were not protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Security First allowed direct access to accounts, bill payment and the viewing of check images, all of which are commonplace today.

References

External links

S1
- as Security First Technologies is now titled.

* http://www.thefreelibrary.com/America's+First+Bank+on+the+Internet,+Security+First+Network+Bank,...-a017645199 {{US-bank-stub Online banks